CM announces tax-free zone

Promises Talagang medical college, engineering university

LAHORE:

Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has announced that an industrial zone will be established in Talagang after providing a road network and it will also be declared tax-free.

Addressing a rally in Talagang, he said that in addition to the factories to be established in the industrial zone, people of the area would also get thousands of jobs as a result of the lifting of the ban on recruitment in government departments.

A medical college and an engineering university will also be established in Talagang.

The chief minister promised to fulfil the needs of local people by building the Tamman and Lava dams. He said Talagang and four other new districts would be set up in Punjab.

Describing the initiatives of his government, he said optometrists would be appointed for eye treatment in the rural health centre, and land ownership rights would be given to the residents of the informal settlements in Talagang and Chakwal.

He disclosed that a plan had also been made to make Chakwal and Talagang a division. He said the government would also make functional the Lava tehsil.

The chief minister said the people of Talagang had stood firmly with him.

He said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had stopped the wheat share of Punjab. “Sindh was given wheat but we are not being allowed to obtain wheat from our own money,” he complained.

Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi recalled that the Punjab Assembly had passed the Ehsas Programme Bill and now it would be enforced across the province.

The flood-affected people will also be given aid from the Ehsas Programme. Shopkeepers will also be given a share in the programme. MPA Hafiz Ammar Yasir thanked the CM for declaring Talagang a district.

Meanwhile, the chief minister said while presiding over a meeting of legislators from Lahore division that the government wanted to serve the people as much as possible and solve their problems in one year.

He said ongoing projects should be expedited and the repair and maintenance of link roads would be completed on priority.

He said that measures will be taken for the upgrade and improvement of tehsil headquarters hospitals and trauma centres will also be built for immediate medical assistance to the injured in accidents on the connecting roads.

The CM also ordered extension of the Speedo bus route to Wafaqi Colony.
In another development, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi formed the Chief Minister’s Taskforce for Education with former provincial minister Mian Imran Masood as its Chairman.

The chef minister gave Mian Imran the notification of the constitution of the panel.

The 12-member taskforce includes Punjab Assembly members Shujaat Nawaz, Abdullah Yusuf Waraich and Khadija Umar, the secretaries of higher and school education, University of Education Vice Chancellor Dr Talat Naseer, Qasim Kasuri, Owais Rauf, Zainab Qureshi and Assistant Professor Sumira Rashid of the Institute of Education and Research of the Punjab University.

The forum is tasked with taking steps for the promotion of education. It will make recommendations to improve the performance of government schools, colleges, universities and intermediate boards.

It will also prepare a report on the problems of private educational institutions, review teachers’ training, curriculum preparation and other issues for the promotion of quality education in the province and submit a report to the chief minister.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 21^st, 2022.