The Punjab government has approved funds worth over Rs1.37 billion to be released through ruling party’s lawmakers for neighbourhood development schemes in Rawalpindi, sources said on Monday.
These funds are part of Rs5.55 billion package for micro-level development schemes across the province to further strengthen position of the ruling party at grass-root level.
The political analysts giving their personal opining said that the timing for releasing funds was crucial and it was meant to garner public support before the local bodies’ elections.
As per the documents read by The Express Tribune, the share of Rawalpindi Metropolitan Corporation (RMC) is Rs1.37 billion, which is highest in history.
The provincial government has identified areas where these funds would be spent through the ministry of local government.
Most of them would be related to construction and repair work and civic development as proposed by the national and provincial lawmakers.
The officials said that it would include laying new water supply lines, installation of tube wells, repair and construction of roads and streets, improvement of the sewerage system, etc.
They added that all schemes would be completed within six months of the commencement date.
The work on the development projects is expected to start this month while the deadline, for small projects, has been set as December 31.
The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government intends to finish all development schemes before the local bodies’ elections to earn public support and win local bodies elections.
Therefore, it will primarily focus on projects at levels of neighborhood and panchayat councils.
Most of the preliminary process of delimitation as well as data entry for enrolment of new voters has been completed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for the local bodies polls in Punjab.
There are 3,563 urban neighbourhood councils and over 21,000 village punchayats in the province.
The union councils in urban areas have been replaced by neighbourhood councils and in rural areas by punchayats.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 6th, 2020.
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