LAHORE, Aug 30: The Punjab government has decided that planning and development department senior officers’ teams will inspect ongoing development schemes in all departments from Sept 1 (tomorrow).

This was announced by Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi while he was presiding over a meeting of the P&D department at the CM House on Saturday.

Punjab Law and Local Government Minister Raja Basharat, P&D parliamentary secretary Zill-i-Huma, P&D chairman Humayun Farshori, secretary Sohail Ahmad, finance secretary Salman Siddique and other officials attended the meeting.

The CM said the monitoring policy would hopefully go a long way towards completing development projects in time, and ensure the use of government resources in a transparent manner. He directed the P&D department to ensure international-level management in the planning and implementation schemes. The department, he said, was bound to approve the technically feasible schemes at the earliest.

Mr Elahi said the government had already constituted the Punjab Development Forum to give recommendations for poverty alleviation, and study the provincial development strategy on a scientific basis. He said the PDF’s first two-day meeting to be attended by representatives of international agencies and private sector was scheduled to begin on Sept 16.

He said a think-tank had also been established at provincial level to conduct research-oriented economic planning, and evolve a development strategy of the province. It would also provide assistance in policy formulation and guidelines for the government departments, he said.

Mr Elahi said the government was seriously considering the plan to set up micro-credit banks in all the districts in the province.