Buzdar defers LDA annual budget

LAHORE: Raising objections over some of the future projects and ongoing projects, Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar has deferred passing of the annual budget of Lahore Development Authority (LDA) for the year 2018-19.

He said that he would himself scrutinise all development projects individually and pass them if they fulfilled all legal formalities. He directed LDA Vice-Chairman Sheikh Muhammad Imran to scrutinise the budget proposal of LDA.

He passed these directions while chairing a meeting of LDA Governing Body at his office here on Thursday.

Spending around Rs 1.2 billion on the development of LDA City in the budget for the year 2018-19 remained the point of discussion as the LDA vice-chairman strongly objected over this project during the meeting. He said that the scheme was already under NAB investigation for alleged corruption so spending Rs 1.2 billion on it will not be a wise decision. He also pointed out several irregularities in other ongoing development projects.

The provincial finance secretary said that LDA DG Amna Imran was bound to send the budget document/proposal to Finance Department for approval almost a week before the budget meeting but this was not done and his department got the budget document/proposal some three days back. He said the department could not review the schemes in such a short time. This objection also irked the chief minister. He told the LDA DG to avoid such negligence in official working. The chief minister also rejected the proposal of increasing the rate of water for domestic consumers. The meeting also accorded approval to receiving charges from the companies selling bottled water.

The chief minister said that water was a great bounty of Allah Almighty and its wastage would have to be stopped. An effective plan should be devised to save water and comprehensive strategy should also be made to end the theft of water, he directed the officers concerned. He directed that illegal connections of water should be removed. It was decided to give a 45-day relaxation for self-disconnection of the illegal connections while indiscriminate action will be initiated against such connections.

Usman Buzdar said that he would not approve any scheme without going through it and every plan would be examined by him. He also directed the authorities concerned to constitute legal, financial and human resource committees of LDA.

He said LDA facility centres should be set up in Nankana Sahib, Sheikhpura and Kasur soon. The Wasa MD informed the chief minister that a complete ban had already been imposed on washing of vehicles at service stations with drinking water and service stations had been given extension to establish water recycling plants.

Provincial Housing Minister Mian Mehmood-ur-Rasheed and the Planning & Development chairman and provincial secretaries, Lahore division commissioner also attended the meeting. It is pertinent to mention here that several development projects are pending in the City and delay in their construction is resulting in cost escalation as well as hardships for the citizens in shape of traffic jams and environmental degradation.

The important ongoing mega projects include construction of a flyover and a road junction outside Shaukat Khanam Hospital, rehabilitation of Khayaban-e-Jinnah, rehabilitation of Khayaban-e-Firdosi into a signal-free corridor, rehabilitation of Maulana Shaukat Ali Road into a signal-free corridor, rehabilitation of Noor Jehan Road, restructuring/remodeling of all underpasses on Canal Bank Road and remodeling/restructuring of Aik Moria Pul, construction of a sports stadium and construction of a ride and shop complex.

LDA Vice-Chairman Sheikh Muhammad Imran while talking with The News said that the authority’s budget had been passed in the meeting but it needed some four to five days to complete official formalities. He said the major point of concern of the chief minister was to ensure transparency in the ongoing projects. He said all ongoing projects having approved PC1, administrative approvals and zero cost escalation would be approved in the next meeting while the rest of the projects would have to face a proper scrutiny. He concluded that the present government would not do any political victimisation with the City and all ongoing and new projects which were in the best interest of the City would be executed.