TOBA TEK SINGH, Oct 14: Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi said on Tuesday that his government would strengthen the local government system by resolving differences between parliamentarians and district Nazims.
He was speaking at a public meeting after inaugurating the new Tehsil Municipal Administration office.
He announced that over the next three years, the Punjab government would spend Rs18 billion on the education sector. The teachers’ training programme would be improved, schoolgirls with 100 per cent attendance given a scholarship of Rs200 per month and the taat system eradicated.
He announced that irrigation water would be supplied to every tail-end village in the district and strict action taken against anybody who tried to create disruptions. He promised to send the Punjab irrigation secretary to the district to address the water shortage problem.
The CM announced Rs150 million for the development of district, Rs6 million for the purchase of sewage disposal machinery, funds for construction of a recreational park, a trauma centre and a CCU department in the DHQ hospital, funds for the Toba and Gojra high schools, construction of a 100-bed hospital for industrial workers, development of the Akalwala Road labour colony, distribution of five-marla plots among the shelterless, a Rs30 million grant for sewerage and water supply schemes of Gojra, a Rs500,000 grant for the Toba Bar library, funds for the Bar cafeteria, a lawyers’ residential colony, proprietary rights for the traders of Shorkot Road, New Market and Jhang Road and ownership rights for Katchi Abadi dwellers.
District Nazim Chaudhry Muhammad Ashfaq, Punjab forest minister Dr Ashfaqur Rehman and MNA Farhan Latif also spoke on the occasion.
The administrators had impounded dozens of vehicles to bring villagers to the place and there was a public transport shortage as a result.
A slogans’ competition continued between supporters of the district Nazim and the Punjab forest minister, and the CM had to ask them to stop more than once.
At a meeting with press club office-bearers, the CM announced a Rs50,000 grant for the widow of photographer Ismail Shaheen, provision of plots to journalists and a grant for the press club building.
The CM also visited the village of Punjab minister Dr Ashfaqur Rehman and the local government girls college.
He addressed the district Bar and the district council in the afternoon.