Cut in budget may hinder shifting of 163 police stations to govt land

LAHORE:A financial crunch may be a hindrance in executing the plan with regard to shifting 163 police stations to government land across the Punjab, The News has learnt.

According to sources, as per plan these police stations had to be shifted but now there might be problems to execute the plan due to cut in police budget of Rs 39billion.

It is pertinent to mention here that the police department had demanded Rs158 billion from the government for budget 2020-21 and the government advised Rs131 billion. However, the government slashed Rs12 billion from its advised budget and allocated Rs119 billion. More than Rs100 billion would be spent on salaries terms and other allowances out of allocated Rs 119 billion. When contacted, Sohail Sukhera, DIG (Operations) Punjab, said 163 police stations were on rent or private lands, which were going to be shifted to government lands, he said. Some of the police stations’ buildings had become dangerous so the police department had decided to shift them, he said.

Punjab police had sent documents to the Board of Revenue for the identification of land where 54 police stations including 20 police stations in Lahore would be established on government land in Punjab. Inspector General of Punjab Police had directed all District Police Officers (DPOs) to work with Board of Revenue for identification of government land. Lahore Police had identified lands for 20 police stations and report was submitted to the IGP while reports from 15 districts were sent to the IGP after identification of lands for 54 police stations.