BAHAWALPUR:A meeting here on Friday was held under the chairmanship of Secretary Planning and Development South Punjab Shoaib Iqbal Syed to discuss and approve development schemes under Annual Development Program 2021-22.
It was informed at the meeting that the Punjab government had presented an annual budget of Rs 560 billion for the current financial year.
For the first time in history, 35 per cent share has been allocated for South Punjab which is Rs 190 billion.
A separate budget book has also been published and funds that are earmarked for South Punjab can be spent only on the construction and development of the region.
It was also informed that out of more than 1700 development schemes allocated for South Punjab in the budget for the financial year 2021-22, more than 70 per cent of schemes had been approved. Secretary Planning and Development South Punjab Shoaib Iqbal Syed said that any hurdles in the approval of development schemes should be removed in a proper manner and implementation of government guidelines should be ensured so that work on all development projects can start as soon as possible and the people of South Punjab can get benefit from these schemes.