GUJRAT: Around 30 acres will be required for construction of infrastructure after Jalalpur Jattan town of the district is accorded the proposed status of tehsil, which may cost Rs900 million, including land acquisition and construction.

However, the district administration has proposed initially arranging rented buildings as well as utilisation of existing government buildings for tehsil offices.

Official sources say the provincial government is all set to award the tehsil status by Jan 1, 2018 to four towns of Punjab, including Jalalpur Jattan, Gaggoo Mandi in Vehari district, Chowk Sarwar Shaheed Muzaffargarh district and Dharanwala in Bahawalnagar district.

The Board of Revenue had sought a report around a week ago from deputy commissioners and administrative secretaries concerned of all provincial departments about awarding tehsil status to the aforementioned towns.

Initial work on the proposal is under way in the districts concerned as well as provincial government departments.

The Gujrat district administration had held a series of meetings with the departments concerned that submitted their requirements for establishment of offices in the proposed tehsil.

30 acres required for infrastructure; status to be awarded by Jan 1

According to the proposals, 30 acres would be required for a tehsil complex, judicial complex, Computerised Land Record Centre, sub-divisional police office, education, health, agriculture, sports, excise and other such offices. Furthermore, Rs100 million would be needed for acquisition of land and approximately Rs786 million for building infrastructure.

The proposals were finalised at a high-level meeting held at the DC office recently, which was also attended by Adviser to the Punjab Chief Minister Tahirul Mulk, PML-N lawmakers Moin Nawaz Warraich, Nawabzada Haider Mehdi, District Council Chairman Tanveer Kotla, Municipal Corporation Mayor Haji Nasir Mehmood and other officials.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) Syed Musa Raza, who is the focal person of the district administration for Jalalpur Jattan, said the proposals of all departments concerned had been approved by the deputy commissioner who had sent a draft report to the Board of Revenue and other government authorities for further processing.

A large number of posts of staff for recruitment had also been proposed in the report.

Published in Dawn, December 05th, 2017