Punjab Senior Minister Abdul Aleem Khan has assigned new tasks to Urban Unit which is aimed at upgrading standard of civic facilities. These tasks includes spade work on 23 new landfill sites in different cities of Punjab, monitoring through computerized system with collaboration of Punjab Information Technology Board, dash boards for local government projects and monitoring mechanism for a tree plantation campaign. Talking to a senior team of Urban Unit on Thursday, the minister said, “The Punjab government is out of funds and we have to ensure minimum budget for all the new projects.” He directed the Urban Unit to devise an awareness campaign for Clean and Green Punjab and also complete record with geographic information. He said that Rs 1.25 billion were monthly being spent only in Lahore for waste collection but there were not still sufficient arrangement for dumping. The senior minister directed the team of Urban Unit to visit within one week to analyze feasibility there. He also directed Urban Unit to make coordinated efforts for concrete planning, which could result in long lasting development in different sectors. “Unlike the previous government, we are not in a hurry to start many projects at the same time and only doable and practical schemes will be surfaced.” Abdul Aleem Khan also asked Urban Unit to take guidelines from the models of the modern countries and apply in improving the civic facilities in Punjab. The senior minister was briefed by Senior Solid Waste Management Specialist Dr. Kiran Farhan, Dr Abdul Basit, senior specialist communication Mamoona Arslan Bhatti and monitoring and evaluation specialist Navid Ahsan, who told him about the different projects prepared by Urban Unit for different sectors of Punjab. During the meeting it was decided that weekly review meetings of Urban Unit would take place to gauge the pace of work. It was also decided that work would also be started on the projects of traffic system and licensing for commercial drivers in the first phase. It was shared that the Punjab Information Technology Board would join hands in different projects of Urban Unit. The senior minister expressed satisfaction over the work and performance of Urban Unit and gave them go-ahead in its professional work. Published in Daily Times, October 19th 2018.