The salaries of 77 college teacher interns from 12 colleges in Lodhran district have finally been released after an eight-month delay.

The payment of salaries for these teachers had been stalled due to the Higher Education Department’s failure to issue a hard copy of the budget since July 2014.

Despite repeated appeals through various forums, including the Chief Minister’s Portal and the deputy commissioners’ open courts, the issue remained unresolved due to the unavailability of the budget document.

Lodhran Deputy Commissioner Dr Lubna Nazir took up the matter with the Secretary of the Higher Education Commission.

Following the implementation of an online budgeting system across the province, she coordinated with the Deputy Secretary to secure the issuance of a hard copy of the budget letter (SO(B&F) 4-33/2024/25) amounting to Rs327.412 million.

This development enabled the processing of salaries and other payments for all 12 colleges in the district through the Finance Department.

With the hard copy now issued, other districts in Punjab are also able to proceed with their budget allocations.