Rs6.487b set aside for environment

LAHORE:Punjab government has allocated Rs6.487 billion for environment protection whereas in previous year the allocation for environmental protection was Rs 5.917 billion. Out of the total Rs6.487 billion, the government has allocated Rs1.487 billion for South Punjab and remaining Rs5 billion were allocated for rest of the province.

As per the budget documents, out of Rs5 billion development budget for Punjab excluding South Punjab, the regular schemes were allocated funds of Rs373.074 million, Rs2.675 billion for new schemes and Rs1.951 billion for other development programme. Whereas, for South Punjab, the government allocated Rs1.487 billion out of which Rs78.075 million was allocated for ongoing schemes, Rs728.250 million for new schemes and Rs683.174 million for other development schemes.

The ongoing schemes in Punjab (excluding South Punjab) include capacity-building of EPA for enforcement of environmental standards in Punjab including combined effluent treatment plants and industrial estates under J&C program, strengthening of strategic planning and implementation unit, development and implementation of plastic management strategy and regularisation on production and consumption of single use plastics, disclosure of environmental information and citizen engagement and establishment of environmental endowment fund management unit.