LAHORE  -   Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar has said the PTI government will protect each and every penny of people and those who misused their power will face the music.

Addressing a news conference on Punjab government’s major achievements in the first 100 days of the PTI government, he said that indiscriminate action was taken against the powerful land grabbers. “So far, 759,428-kanal state land has been retrieved. The retrieved land is worth billions, almost equal to development budget of Punjab,” he told the media at the CM Secretariat on The Mall on Thursday.

Flanked by provincial ministers Raja Basharat and Fayyazul Hassan Chohan and spokesman for Punjab government Dr Shahbaz Gill, Buzdar said retrieving land from grabbers was not an ordinary achievement, as indiscriminate action on a large scale had been taken for the first time. The chief minister claimed credit for the vigorous action against the powerful land grabbers soon after coming into power.

“The PTI government has shown no leniency to anybody during this operation. No government could dare to take action against land grabbers in the past,” he said.

The chief minister said the Punjab government had set its direction in the first 100 days and targets had been pinpointed. He said that 56,264-kanal land was retrieved in Lahore, 22,788-kanal in Gujranwala, 136,000-kanal in Faisalabad, 7,350-kanal in Rawalpindi, 405,665-kanal in another city, 665-kanal in Dera Ghazi Khan, 14,563-kanal in Bahawalpur, 36,000-kanal in Sahiwal, 56,284-kanal in Sargodha and 24,000-kanal in Multan.

He said all departments had taken possession of their retrieved land and a data bank had been established for land holders.

He said that anti-encroachment committees had been set up at the district level to ensure that poor segments and people doing small businesses are not affected. He said that his predecessor had set up four camp offices -- Jati Umra, 96-H Model Town, 180-H Model Town and 41-S, DHA.

“On the contrary, I don’t have any camp office,” he said, adding that more than 2,000 security officials were deployed for the chief minister’s security and four camp offices during the last government. “Now, only 60 officials are performing security duty. Previously, Rs550 million state funds were being spent on security of Jati Umra. Not a single penny has been spent on such things in our government,” he said. He claimed the PTI government saved Rs30,000 under the head of petrol every month at the CM Office.

Giving details of expenditures of Punjab House Islamabad during the previous tenure, he said that Rs63.7 million was still pending against political and other persons associated with the previous government.

“We have cancelled booking of illegal occupants of Punjab House and notices have been issued to them,” he said and disclosed that over Rs640 million were pending against Dr Asif Kirmani; Rs9.6 million against Senator Pervaiz Rasheed and Senator Mushahidullah owes the government Rs2 million.

Similarly, Anusha Rahman has to pay Rs2.3 million and Rs3.9 million is pending against former AG Mustafa Ramday. He said Zubair Gull has to pay an amount of Rs2.4 million while more than Rs10 million is officially due to personal friends of the former prime minister, the chief minister said.

Giving details of the measures taken by the government in the last 100 days to curb corruption, Buzdar said the Anti Corruption Establishment (ACE) had made a recovery of Rs34 billion during this period. “Rs2 billion has been received under the head of fines and Rs32 billion saved in the form of retrieved state land. State land worth Rs2.5 billion has been retrieved from former federal minister Anwar Aziz Chaudhry in Sillanwali tehsil in Sargodha district,” he explained.