LAHORE: The Punjab government has asked local governments to get their budgets approved from their houses.

Local governments are required to prepare proposals and approve their budgets with effect from Jan 2, when these bodies were made operational.

The Punjab Local Government and Community Development has already released the first tranche of budget for January and February.

In order to make local governments and union councils fully functional, the department has gazette notified eight set of rules business, budget and account rules for local governments and union councils as well as fiscal transfer rules for local governments and appeal rules.

In order to keep the local government budgets and funds transparent, the chief minister has also directed the establishment of an audit authority.