Huge sum spent on health, education: Shuja
Lahore:October 05:Provincial Minister for Excise and Taxation and Finance Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman on Saturday said record funds were being provided to health and education sectors in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Shuja said huge resources were being spent on rapid development across the province, promotion of quality education, elimination of ignorance and unemployment as well as provision of prompt and inexpensive justice to the masses.
The major focus of the government was on improving health of people through strengthening primary healthcare and disease preventive programmes, he added.
Shuja said resources worth billions of rupees had been allocated for provision of education, health and other basic facilities in the current fiscal year budget.
According to a handout, the minister, while talking to party workers at Shalimar Town, said special attention was being paid to the provision of best treatment facilities to the people of far-flung areas especially remote areas of south Punjab. He promised providing more resources for uplift of socio-economic status of the masses in the underdeveloped areas.
He said Rs 274 billion would be spent on education sector during the current fiscal year which was 26.25 per cent of the total provincial budget.
The minister said the government was encouraging NGOs as well as educational institutions for organising awareness events against fatal diseases.
He said by increasing the health budget up to Rs 121.80 billion, the present government had ensured modern health facilities and free medicines as well as air-conditioning in general wards to poor and resource-less people.
He said health insurance cards would be issued with a cost of Rs 4 billion for providing state-of-the-art healthcare facilities even in private health institutions to the poor card holder patients.
Shuja said the Institute of Neuro Sciences would provide opportunities for the promotion of neurosurgery in Punjab as well as training and updating the knowledge of doctors.The news.
