Lahore gets 58pc share in development budget

Punjab govt claims no discrimination against any district

ISLAMABAD: Over half of the district based development budget of Punjab has gone to only one district of the province, namely Lahore, a detailed analysis of this year’s budget document has revealed.

A review of the two volumes of the provincial budget document “Demands for Grants” for fiscal year 2016-17 shows that around 58% allocation for development schemes have been reserved for provincial capital alone while no other district could get more than 3% share in uplift budget.

According to documents an amount of Rs134 billion has been allocated for 445 schemes of Lahore out of a total district based allocation of Rs229 billion. The second highest allocation for the development schemes went to southern Punjab’s largest Multan which gets 3% share with Rs8.2 billion for such projects.

Faisalabad, another larger district of the province could get 2.7% share in district-based development schemes with Rs6.2 million while Rawalpindi has been given 2.97% share with Rs6.8 billion development budget.

According to documents, share of Attock is Rs1.03%, Bahawalnagar 1.09%, Bahawalpur 2.72%, Bhakkar, 0.5%, Dera Ghazi Khan, 1.49%, Liyyah 0.83 %, Muzaffargarh, 1.47%, Toba Tek Singh 0.21 %, Vehari 1.01%, Rajanpur 0.72% and Rahim Yar Khan 1.01 %.

Under Lahore based project major allocations have been made for Lahore Orange Line Metro Train Project with Rs85 billion earmarked for this year. An amount of Rs 1.99 billion has been allocated for provision of Sewerage System for UC-117, 118 & 120 Lahore.

Sewerage System from Larex Colony to Gulshan-e-Ravi Lahore will cost Rs1.3 billion. An amount of Rs5 billion has been given as loans for Lahore Waste Management Company for its capital, operational and Head Office expenditures.

Pakistan Kidney Liver Institute (PKLI) Lahore will cost Rs4 billion on provincial exchequer. Other mega projects include Punjab Police Integrated Command, Control & Communication (PPIC3) Centre Lahore with Rs2.9 billion allocation, Punjab Police Integrated Command Control & Communication Center Lahore (Safe City Project Lahore) with Rs10.63 billion and Lahore Knowledge Park with Rs2 billion funding.

The Punjab district profile has been extracted by Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI) from the budget document uploaded on the official website of finance department of Punjab.

According to Raja Shoaib Akbar, Programme Manager at CPDI, data for all the districts of both provinces has been extracted by searching for the district names in the large budget books titled “Demand for Grant”-Development. He said there might be a few instances where district name is not mentioned in the budget book and that project might have not been included in the analysis.

While contacted, acting Secretary Information Punjab, Raja Jahangir said the provincial government was not discriminating against any district and the funds had been allocated in proportion with the population of districts. He said some projects based in Lahore were beneficial for the entire province like universities and Tertiary Care Hospitals.

The spokesman of the Punjab government claimed that in the annual development plan of the province, southern Punjab had been given 32% share while its population is 31% of the total number of people living in the province.

Talking to The News, Secretary Planning and Development Punjab, Iftikhar Sahu doubted the accuracy of figures saying there is no document that contains details of district wise allocation separately.

He said, “Lahore gets major allocations because the provincial capital has the infrastructure and human capacity to sustain major projects.”