LAHORE, June 10: All district coordination officers (DCOs) in Punjab were asked on Saturday to listen to MPAs while recruiting officials in their respective districts in BS-1 to 4, sources claimed.

The DCOs were attending a meeting at The Mall secretariat of the chief minister which was presided over by Local Government Minister Muhammad Basharat Raja. The meeting was specially convened on the orders of the chief minister who himself was in Islamabad.

The DCOs were asked to fill in 50 per cent vacant posts of lower grades in all departments under their command in January this year. The posts were of drivers, messengers, baildars and sweepers and were to be filled in on a three-year contract.

The sources said the DCOs were asked to listen to the MPAs and the provincial government while making appointments so that “better selection” could be made.

The minister reportedly reminded the officers that they were the actual representatives of the provincial government in their respective districts. Though nazims were the heads of the districts, the DCOs were the actual chief executives who could only implement the government policy.

The minister directed them to speedily complete development schemes of all the MPAs which they had suggested according to the Rs5 million quota reserved for each of them by the chief minister.

The sources said the meeting was informed that none of the districts had fully implemented the president’s vision of providing drinking clean water to the people by the next year. And the DCOs were directed by the minister to forthwith start doing the needful to meet the deadline.

Raja said all the district governments and TMAs were making their budgets for their next fiscal year and they must allocate adequate funds for the provision of clean drinking water and better sewerage system to the people.

He asked the DCOs to immediately conduct a survey of water and sewerage lines in their respective districts and TMAs, and redress all complaints about the supply of polluted water received from anywhere.

The minister reportedly asked the DCOs to depute inspectors for controlling prices of items of daily use under the local and special laws after it was informed that some districts had not as yet detailed the officers for the purpose.

He said it was necessary to evolve an effective system to monitor prices of items of daily use. And for that purpose, district price control committees should be activated, ensuring the maximum inclusion of elected and effective people in them. All such committees should send reports of prices of the items of daily use to the provincial government every day. Those not following the instructions would be taken to task, he said.

The minister asked the DCOs to have meetings with manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and organisers of Sunday Bazaars to motivate them to lower the prices of the items so that people could be given some relief.

The agriculture marketing secretary was directed to have a meeting with chairmen of the marketing committees to activate them, and consider possibilities of establishing new markets.

Raja said the government would appoint price magistrates only after receiving related instructions from the federal government. He said the chief minister had considerably increased funds for the district governments. An increase in the budget of the TMAs was also expected and this additional amount should be spent on the welfare of the people.

He directed the DCOs to ensure full implementation of the education and health reform programmes. He said the chief minister would soon review progress of the programmes in a meeting to be held in Lahore.