'No priority for sport, education, health'

The schemes in the area of education, health, environment and water were ignored due to negligible funds

FAISALABAD: Members of National Assembly belonging to the ruling party group once again failed to allocate substantial funds to promote sport activities, develop parks, counter pollution, fix health and education issues. However, the main funds allocated were confined to roads, drains and maintenance of streets.



As many as 1,108 development schemes were approved under the Prime Minister Development Programme which was proposed by the members of the National Assembly of district Faisalabad amounting to Rs2.92 billion during the current financial year. As per the official document, only 13 projects worth Rs33.3 million pertaining to the sport and parks were completed while the rest of overwhelming projects were identified and approved belonging to roads, drains and puce streets. The schemes in the area of education, health, environment and water were also ignored as negligible funds were allocated in these areas.



For promotion of the direly needs of sport related activities, just Rs20 million had been earmarked for the provisions of infrastructure at Shahbaz Sharif Park, while another amount of Rs13.3 million had been reserved for the development of boundary walls of 12 parks in the city. Not a single project to reduce pollution had been identified by the 33 members of the national and provincial assembly of the district

A leading town planner of the city, Bahuddin Siddique, regretted that no priority had been accorded to earmark the open spaces in the city.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 16^th, 2017.