LAHORE, March 5: Governor Kahlid Maqbool said on Tuesday efforts were being made to get the farm loan allocation enhanced from Rs6 billion to Rs20 billion.

Addressing members of his cabinet and secretaries of all administrative departments and people representing different walks of life at the Darbar Hall of the Governor’s House, he said his government would try to expand farm loan utilization in areas known for better yield.

During his speech and the question-answer session later, the governor outlined his priorities and urged the ministers and the officers to facilitate public. He reviewed the working of almost all departments and gave directions for their improvement. People’s representatives narrated problems of their areas and gave proposals for their resolution.

The governor said there would be no ban on wheat movement. He told a questioner the government would procure 2.5 million tonnes of wheat as per its announcement.

He said farmers would be involved in the process of storing and marketing crops.

The government, according to him, was going to withdraw subsidies on food and divert them to farmers.

About crop zoning, he said efforts would be made to ensure its implementation.

Regarding irrigation, he said that there was a dire need of funds for the repair of barrages and headworks in the Punjab. “We may seek help from donor agencies after formulating a strategy in this regard.”

HEALTH & EDUCATION: He said model mosques and seminaries would be established in every city whose syllabi would also be prepared by the government.

He said there were 66,000 public primary schools and 3,000 medical institutions in the province which needed attention and resources in improving their quality.

He said private parties were ready to establish universities in Sargodha, Faisalabad and Gujrat. An accreditation authority was being established to ensure quality at private educational institutions through grading.

According to APP, the governor told the audience that universities of medical sciences and education were being set up in the province to produce professionals of high calibre in the fields of health and education.

“The university of education will also be helpful in modernizing the syllabi and provide training to the teachers.”

He said institutes of mathematics and biology would also be set up soon.

POLICE: Regarding police reforms, he said that the investigation wing had been separated from the watch and ward.

“We have told the police officers to resort to the management of crime at strategic level by tracking down the reasons behind the offences,” he said.

He said that the traffic police was being expanded to many cities of the province.

On the experience of having separate women police stations, the Punjab governor said that the government would soon build women sections in the general police stations as the women police stations had not been a complete answer to the problem.

INDUSTRY: He said that efforts were on to remove bottlenecks presently hampering the industrialization in the province.

He asked the Punjab finance minister to identify ways to attract investment from Pakistani expatriates.

LAND: According to the governor, some 100,000 Cholistanis living in the second largest desert of the country would soon get ownership of land.

He said that land would also be provided to the shelterless people in other parts of the province too.

He said his government was planning to speed up the remaining consolidation process in 526 villages of the Punjab. This scheme, earlier considered to be something good for the people, was now a problem for them.

He said the entire BoR record would be scanned and put on a website to facilitate common people.

TAX: He stressed the need for simplifying tax collection system.

He said the excise department must simplify its tax collection system, enabling the people to know what they were required to pay. “We are discouraging people to build and rent out houses through the high property tax.

On the agriculture tax, he said that both the modes of agriculture tax — acreage based and income based — had not worked well

TOURISM: He said cities like Lahore and Multan had potential to attract foreign tourists and steps should be taken in this regard.

He regretted that out of Rs 120 billion annual budget of the province only a sum of Rs 20 billion had been spent on the development projects.