Punjab to have five more districts
LAHORE – Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar Wednesday said that decisions about making new districts and tehsils will be made on administrative grounds and distribution of population and financial resources will also be minutely studied before the final decision.
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The Chief Minister stated this in a meeting with Punjab Minister for Irrigation Mohsin Khan Leghari as the latter took up the issue of demarcation of administrative boundaries and pleaded his case for the inclusion of Jampur Tehsil in the list of proposed new districts and tehsils.
“The decision about new districts and tehsils will be made on merit and no locality will be ignored”, said the Chief Minister, adding that Jampur tehsil of Rajanpur district will also be taken along in the journey of development.
According to an official release, the creation of more job opportunities for South Punjab and issues relating to carving out new districts and tehsils also came under discussion in the meeting.
The Minister also apprised the CM about the performance of his department.
The CM stated the government has fulfilled the promise of setting up the Southern Punjab secretariat and now the locals will not have to visit Lahore for the solution of their issues.
The journey of the development of Southern Punjab has begun and it will not stop, he told the minister.
It may be recalled here that the Punjab government has already constituted a task force to review the boundaries of tehsils and districts in the province.
The last meeting of this task force was held in the last week of January this year.
This meeting had pondered over the procedures and rules for setting up new districts and tehsils in Punjab.
According to terms of reference for the task force, the local district administration will initiate a proposal for news districts and tehsils.
A study group comprising representatives of the Punjab Board of Revenue, Finance Department, P&D, and Excise Department would later examine this proposal keeping in view the geography and economic impacts.
The government is considering revising the boundaries of some districts because the population of some tehsils is more than that of the districts while the population of some districts is less than tehsils.
The proposed new district includes Kot Addu, a tehsil of Muzaffargarh district, Taunsa, a tehsil of DG Khan districts, Christian, a tehsil of Bahawalnagar district, Shujabad, a tehsil of Multan district and Jampur, a tehsil of Rajanpur district.