Punjab Approves Rs23.85bn for Khushhal Dehat VillagesPakistan

According to the plan, a Khushhal Dehat Committee headed by the relevant Additional Deputy Commissioner Social Services will oversee the completion of development projects in each village. The committee will comprise five government and four private members.

The chairperson of the Union Council and the concerned sub-engineer will also be included in the committee, so that local representatives and technical staff are part of the work.

The chief minister directed officials to release the first installment of grants to the committees by November. She also sought a development plan for another 2,000 villages under the programme’s second phase.

She said development would be carried out equally in urban and rural areas, regardless of political affiliation, as every region of the province had an equal right to development and to the resolution of its problems.

The approval was also reported by Dunya News, which said the chief minister had approved Rs50 million for development work in each union council of Punjab.

The Khushhal Dehat Programme is the provincial government’s latest rural development initiative, focused on basic infrastructure in villages, where paved streets and drainage remain among the most common demands of residents.

Officials say the committee-based model is intended to keep the work under local oversight, with government officers, elected union council representatives and private members all involved in monitoring the projects.

The first phase covers 475 villages, and the government says the second phase will extend the programme to a further 2,000 villages once the development plan for them is ready.

The programme places the oversight of each village’s projects in the hands of a committee that brings together district administration, elected union council leadership and private members, a structure officials say is meant to keep the spending visible and accountable at the local level.

Rural infrastructure has been a recurring demand in Punjab’s villages, where residents have long asked for paved streets and working drainage. The provincial government says the first phase is a starting point, with the second phase intended to reach a further 2,000 villages once its development plan is ready.