Maryam approves Punjab Housing Agency surplus budget

LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has approved a surplus budget of Rs34.73 billion of Punjab Housing and Town Planning Agency (PHATA) for the current fiscal year. The CM chaired the 99th meeting of PHATA Governing Body on Sunday in which she was briefed that receipts were estimated at Rs17 billion while expenditure was guessed at Rs13-55 billion.

The chief minister also approved ‘Apni Chhat, Apna Ghar’ programme, and was briefed by the relevant authorities that so far 544,000 people have got themselves registered on the portal while 280,000 applications were received to build houses under the program. Whereas there were more than 76,000 draft applications.

The CM sought a plan from PHATA authorities to complete the housing project with private sector partnership and permitted them to sign an agreement in this regard.

Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz directed the authorities concerned to continue the process of verifying credentials of the applicants in a timely and speedy manner. She also accorded approval to upgrade the scale of PHATA data entry operators, besides the recruitment of a civil sub engineer under PHATA Services Regulation 2004.

The chief minister decided in principle to subject the approval of PHATA budget to its Governing Body instead of the provincial cabinet. She allowed refunds to the applicants of earlier housing schemes who could not be successful in the balloting process.

Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz directed the authorities concerned to ensure staff hiring for PHATA PMU through job hiring portal and directed them to decide for the approval of pending housing schemes on case-to-case basis.

Meanwhile, in a message on the International Day of Disaster Reduction, Maryam Nawaz said, “Awareness, preparedness and effective planning are very much needed to deal with natural disasters.”

She said, “Punjab government is planning to deal with emergency situations in line with the requirements of modern age to ensure protection of people. The launch of Air Ambulance and Motorway Ambulance Services in Punjab is a major step in this regard.”

The chief minister said, “PDMA is being developed on modern lines.” She added, “Control rooms of the institutions concerned are being upgraded to deal with emergency situations.”

Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif said, “Steps have been taken to deal with climate change. We are making people safe by taking effective measures before the onslaught of disasters.”

The chief minister said, “Community partnership and awareness campaigns play a key role in best disaster management. We want to give a safe and stable future to the coming generations by reducing risks of natural disasters.”