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Tuesday March 19, 2024

LG institutions to be strengthened: Buzdar

By Our Correspondent
September 26, 2018

LAHORE: Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar has said that local government institutions will be strengthened and made fully functional.

The power and authority will be devolved at the grassroots so that problems of the people could be solved at their doorstep. This would provide the public with relief as the agenda of the PTI government is to provide different facilities to the general public along with timely solution to their problems, he said.

In a statement issued here on Tuesday, the chief minister said that PTI was going to introduce a new local government system through consultations.

There is no room for the outdated local government system in the new Pakistan as the present system had failed to solve the problems of the masses at the grassroots. On the other side, the local governments were rendered powerless, he said. He said the government would grant authority to the local government representatives and the checks and balances would also be put in place.

The representatives of the people will be answerable to the people as the focus of the new system is the general public, the chief minister said. smooth traffic: Usman Buzdar has directed the authorities concerned to immediately improve the flow of traffic in different areas of the city.

The traffic officials should take organised steps to ensure flow of traffic by visiting different areas. The traffic management should be given special attention to solve the problems of the people which arose due to traffic jams in some areas. The traffic system should be improved and a report be submitted to the Chief Minister’s Office, he directed.

Proposals: For the establishment of new local government system in Punjab recommendations have been finalised and Punjab senior Minister Abdul Aleem Khan has also given approval to the recommendations and now these would be presented to Prime Minister Imran Khan for final decision.

After a high-level meeting, Minister Abdul Aleem Khan said in new system elections of local body institutions would take place not on party but popularity basis and village and neighbourhood councils would be elected where in each council there would three elected representatives while three reserved seats for youth, ladies and minority.

Abdul Aleem Khan said election of mayor and deputy mayor would be direct and on party basis which would be a new and constructive experience. He said for the first time in the history Punjab government would be handing over its developmental budget to the councillors and 30 per cent funds of Annual Development Programme (ADP) would be at the disposal of local body institutions. Abdul Aleem Khan said there would be no overlapping and jurisdiction would be very clear for local and district governments.

The senior minister said in Punjab 10 to 20 thousand people would be electing their representatives and even councillors would be recommending developmental schemes and spending lakhs of rupees for the welfare of the masses. Abdul Aleem Khan added people’s problems would be solved at local level as per their aspirations.

He claimed that new local bodies’ setup in Punjab would be one of its own kind on which even political opponents cannot raise finger.