LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly on Thursday approved 41 demands for grants worth over Rs1.8 trillion as the treasury and opposition benches resorted to blame game during the proceedings.

The session started with a delay of 1 hour and 23 minutes as its scheduled time was 2pm.

Responding to a cut motion presented by the opposition against demand for grants for the police department, Law Minister Raja Basharat highlighted the services of police saying the session had to begin at 2pm, while the police had reached the venue (for security purposes) at 12 noon. He said the police were standing in the sun no lawmaker would have offered them a glass of water, nor anyone talked of increasing their salaries and perks.

He said before criticising anyone, the opposition must consider that the police were at the forefront of the battle against coronavirus.

He claimed that the crime rate under the PTI government had declined and urged the legislators to compare two years of the party’s rule with the 10 years of PML-N government to judge the performance of the two administrations.

He said the government would bear the cost of investigation at police stations level and for the purpose the budget for the investigation wing had been increased for the first time.

The minister said that 5,000 more police personnel would be recruited, while Highway Patrol Posts would be reintroduced.

Denying that the Forensic Science Lab was being closed down, he however said the government was facing funding issue to run the project.

Responding to the cut motion against the demand for grant for health department, Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid said thalassemia centres were functioning in all 36 districts of the province where so far 350,000 people had been screened.

She said 50 percent posts in the department were vacant when the PTI assumed charge of the province and so far the government had filled 28,000 of the vacancies.

Dr Murad Ras, while opposing the cut motion against the demand for grant for education department, alleged the PML-N had devastated the department during its 10-year rule.

He said the PTI government introduced a mobile app for teachers’ transfer.

He claimed that the government had re-enrolled 22,000 drop-out students through an afternoon schooling pilot programme.

He said the N League had established the last primary school in 2015, while the PTI was going to open 100 new primary schools in Lahore, besides introducing Insaf Mobile School project for educating the children working in various markets.After approval of all the 41 demands for grants for various departments, the chair adjourned the proceedings for Friday afternoon.

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2020