K-P allocates Rs2.5 billion for rebuilding school
Official says govt waited for two years, hoping donor organisations would step in
K-P allocates Rs2.5billion to rebulid schools .PHOTO: REUTERS m
PESHAWAR:
The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government on Wednesday announced a massive package worth Rs2.583 billion to rebuild schools, damaged during a 2015 earthquake, over three years
Around 168 government schools had been destroyed when an earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale struck the Hindu Kush region between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Of these, 136 were primary schools, 12 were middle schools and 20 were high and higher secondary schools in nine districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).
According to documents from the Provincial Development Working Party (PDWP), available with The Express Tribune, the scheme to rebuild severely damaged government schools in K-P has been included in the Annual Developmental Plan for 2017-18.
The project will see both boys and girls schools, destroyed in the temblor, rebuilt over the next 36 months.
The documents stipulate that the government will spend only a small sum in the current fiscal year, around Rs150 million. The government will then equally spend the remaining money in the subsequent two years, earmarking Rs1.22 billion each for fiscal years 2018-19 and 2019-20.
Upper Dir had suffered the most in the quake where 52 schools, including 42 primary schools, four middle and six high and higher secondary schools were completely destroyed.
The second worst affected district was Swat where 37 primary schools and seven high and higher secondary were destroyed. It was followed by Shangla where 29 schools were destroyed, including 25 primary, three middle and a high school. As many as 16 schools were destroyed in Lower Dir, 15 in Kohistan, seven in Chitral, each two in Batagram and Torghar and one in Bunner.
Speaking The Express Tribune, a senior official of the K-P PDWP confirmed that the scheme had been discussed in detail at a PDWP meeting which was held on November 7, 2017.
During the meeting, the official said, they were told that a project concept-I (PC-I) for the reconstruction of schools had been framed as per actual data. He added that the government had waited for two years for donor organisations to step in but they did not show any interest in rebuilding these damaged schools.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 25th, 2018.
The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government on Wednesday announced a massive package worth Rs2.583 billion to rebuild schools, damaged during a 2015 earthquake, over three years
Around 168 government schools had been destroyed when an earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale struck the Hindu Kush region between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Of these, 136 were primary schools, 12 were middle schools and 20 were high and higher secondary schools in nine districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).
According to documents from the Provincial Development Working Party (PDWP), available with The Express Tribune, the scheme to rebuild severely damaged government schools in K-P has been included in the Annual Developmental Plan for 2017-18.
The project will see both boys and girls schools, destroyed in the temblor, rebuilt over the next 36 months.
The documents stipulate that the government will spend only a small sum in the current fiscal year, around Rs150 million. The government will then equally spend the remaining money in the subsequent two years, earmarking Rs1.22 billion each for fiscal years 2018-19 and 2019-20.
Upper Dir had suffered the most in the quake where 52 schools, including 42 primary schools, four middle and six high and higher secondary schools were completely destroyed.
The second worst affected district was Swat where 37 primary schools and seven high and higher secondary were destroyed. It was followed by Shangla where 29 schools were destroyed, including 25 primary, three middle and a high school. As many as 16 schools were destroyed in Lower Dir, 15 in Kohistan, seven in Chitral, each two in Batagram and Torghar and one in Bunner.
Speaking The Express Tribune, a senior official of the K-P PDWP confirmed that the scheme had been discussed in detail at a PDWP meeting which was held on November 7, 2017.
During the meeting, the official said, they were told that a project concept-I (PC-I) for the reconstruction of schools had been framed as per actual data. He added that the government had waited for two years for donor organisations to step in but they did not show any interest in rebuilding these damaged schools.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 25th, 2018.