LAHORE, May 27: The size of the Punjab Annual Development Programme (ADP) for the year 2004-05 is likely to be fixed somewhere between Rs35 and Rs40 billion and not Rs28 billion as indicated by the federal government.

According to sources, the federal government has indicated a sum of Rs54 billion for all the provincial ADPs for the next fiscal year under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP).

However, they said, a final decision on the size of the Punjab ADP would be made after a meeting of the National Economic Council in Islamabad on May 31. The ADP components include the provincial and district programmes and the foreign project assistance which comes through the federal government.

The resources are generated by provincial governments. The federal government only gives the provinces an overall policy regarding the public sector expenditure, indicating the size of the ADP.

The sources said the provincial government would fix a bigger ADP for the next year than that indicated by the federal government. The federal government had indicated Punjab's ADP for 2003-04 at Rs25 billion, but the province increased it to Rs30.5 billion, which included provincial programmes worth Rs13.20 billion, foreign project assistance to the tune of Rs8.30 billion and a Rs9 billion district programme.

This indicated a 33 per cent increase in the size of the ADP, which was Rs20.75 billion for the year 2002-03. The ADP for 2002-03 also contained a Rs9 billion district programme. The sources said the main thrust of the ADP for the next financial year would be on the social sector, like education, roads and the irrigation network.

The rehabilitation and modernization of the irrigation network, especially barrages, would be one of the main targets in the next budget. The barrages, worth billions of rupees, were falling apart and the government wanted to repair them besides constructing new reservoirs, they said.

Meanwhile, presiding over a meeting where the ADP was discussed, Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi directed the finance and planning and development departments to distribute sufficient resources for alleviating backwardness and providing relief to the people.

He said that coordination with the federal government had been improved for early completion of mega development projects in the province. The chief minister said he had held a meeting with the federal finance minister to expedite the process of development in the province.

He said the focus was on agriculture and industrial sectors for better economic planning while huge resources were being spent on the uplift of education, health and social development sectors.

The chief minister said equitable opportunities were also being provided to the neglected far-flung areas of the province, for which the administrative machinery had been reactivated.

He said all development schemes of education, health, water supply and sanitation would be completed well in time. Substantial relief was being provided to the farmers' community in the upcoming budget, he added.