Chandigarh,  Punjab government has allocated funds to the tune of Rs 8 crore in this fiscal to departments for welfare and social works being done by the non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

Chairing the meeting of apex committee for providing financial assistance to NGOs, Chief Secretary Vijay Kumar Janjua said requisite funds would be provided to NGOs from time-to-time for different works through departments.

He said that the apex committee has been working in the priority sectors like education, vocational training, social justice, health, animal husbandry, social security, rural development and children nutrition programmes so that the works could be implemented effectively.

Janjua said out of total Rs 8 crore, Rs 3.96 crore had been allocated for social security, women and child development, Rs 2.50 crore for animal husbandry, Rs 59 lakh for health, Rs 44 lakh for rural development and panchayat, Rs 40 lakh for social justice, empowerment and minorities and Rs 11 lakh for school education.

The Chief Secretary further directed to evaluate the performance of the NGOs with a view to streamline their activities so as to avoid duplicity of work done by various NGOs under different schemes of the government.

He emphasised that there should be strong synergy between their activities and coordination with the departments to achieve the objective of economic and socio upliftment of targeted section of society.

Principal Secretary Planning and Animal Husbandry Vikas Pratap apprised the Chief Secretary regarding allotment of funds along with details of last financial year's performance of different departments.