LAHORE: Chief Minister Punjab Chaudhry Pervez Elahi has issued strict instructions to implement the austerity policy while making major decisions to reduce government expenditures in the province.

He imposed a ban on the procurement of new vehicles for government departments and further announced a 50% reduction in the non-development expenses of all government departments including the CMO.

While chairing a meeting at his office on Tuesday, the CM instructed all departments to ensure strict implementation of the austerity policy. He also ordered to provide him with a complete record of state lands in Punjab within seven days. A comprehensive policy will be prepared to auction the government lands transparently.

Parvez Elahi directed adopting out-of-box measures to increase provincial resources and stressed that line departments should uniquely introduce new measures to increase revenue.

He directed to achieve targets set for increasing the resources and made it clear that it is the responsibility of the line departments to ensure achieving targets within the stipulated period. They should burn the midnight oil while adopting concrete measures to increase the resources. This would help provide more facilities to the citizens, he noted.

The development program and financial affairs in the province were reviewed in detail.
Provincial Finance Minister Mohsin Leghari, former federal minister Moonis Elahi, Hussain Elahi MNA, Chief Secretary Abdullah Sumbal, Principal Secretary to CM Muhammad Khan Bhatti, secretary finance and others attended the meeting.