Welfare of poor to be given top priority in Punjab budget: CM

LAHORE : Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar Saturday presided over a meeting to review in detail the salient features of the provincial budget 2021-22 as well as priorities and development projects in different sectors under the Annual Development Programme.

He ordered for making the budget welfare oriented and said that special attention would be paid to welfare of the deprived segments of society.

The forthcoming budget of Punjab government would be public, cultivator, industrialist and worker-friendly and would bring good news for all.

He said that the government was ensuring provision of maximum relief to the common man in the coming budget.

Usman Buzdar ordered for sustainable measures in the next fiscal budget to facilitate all walks of life. He ordered for keeping the Annual Development Programme realistic under the vision of composite development in the province and also ordered for allocating more resources for health sector in the wake of recent corona pandemic.

He said that priority would be given to education, infrastructure, and transport sectors besides ensuring provision of clean drinking water as well as development of other social sectors.

He said that the upcoming budget should reflect the development of the province and the well-being of the people in a true sense, instead of statistics.

The CM ordered for focusing on austerity, savings and financial discipline in the forthcoming budget and that the scope of projects of public welfare would be extended under the Public-Private Partnership and unnecessary expenditure would be reduced further.

No extra burden would be placed in the budget on the impecunious strata.

He said that salaries of provincial employees had been increased by 25% and would be further increased in the budget.

Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister said that the federal government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan, has presented the best budget in which special relief has been provided to the deprived segments of society. He said that for the first time in history, tax relief of billions of rupees had been given to different sectors.

He said that initiatives announced in the federal budget would further strengthen the national economy.

Due to the solid policies of the government, all economic indicators had been turned positive.

He slammed the opposition and said that indecent and undemocratic attitude during the budget speech as well as unjustifiable hue and cry on such a balanced budget was not a positive approach.

He also termed the attitude of opposition on public-friendly initiatives against the national interest.

The opposition’s confusion over the best and balanced budget was quite obvious to all. The opposition did not want Pakistan to be economically strong, the CM said. CM calls parliamentary party meeting: Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar has called a meeting of provincial parliamentary party on Sunday, June 13. The CM will preside over the meeting while provincial ministers and members of the Punjab Assembly will participate in it.

The parliamentary party will be briefed about important features of the budget of the fiscal year 2021-22 and also decide strategy regarding budget meeting of the Punjab Assembly.