Rs6.421b for environment

LAHORE:The Punjab government has allocated Rs6.421 billion for the environment protection in the province. Out of the total Rs6.421 billion, the government has allocated Rs1.421 billion for South Punjab while rest of the Rs5 billion were allocated for the remaining province.

As per the budget documents, out of Rs5 billion development budget for Punjab excluding South Punjab, a sum of Rs2.099 billion was allocated for eight ongoing schemes and Rs1.048 billion were allocated for new schemes and Rs1.852 billion for other development programmes. Whereas, for South Punjab, the government allocated Rs1.421 billion out of which Rs629.300 million was allocated for ongoing schemes, Rs144.333 million for new schemes and Rs648.200 million for other development schemes.

The ongoing schemes in Punjab (excluding South Punjab) including strengthening of strategic planning and implementation unit, construction of green building for EMC, development and implementation of plastic management strategy and regulation on production and consumption of single use plastic, disclosure of environmental information and citizen engagement, establishment of environmental endowment fund management unit, enhanced air quality monitoring system in Punjab, development of missing environmental quality standards and revision of existing standards and enhanced water quality monitoring system in Punjab. The new schemes included construction of environmental complexes in Rawalpindi, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Gujranwala and establishment of environmental monitoring centre. The other development programmes included capitalisation of environment endowment fund.