AJK govt striving to provide basic facilities: official

Water, sanitation, link roads, walkways, hospitals and renovation of public places are on high priority

MUZAFFARABAD: The government of Azad Jammu and Kashmir is working hard to provide basic civic facilities to people through the Prime Minister’s Community Infrastructure Development Programme (PMCIDP).

These views were expressed by Local Government and Rural Development (LG&RD) Secretary Ijaz Ahmad Khan while talking to Express Tribune. Khan said work under the PMCIDP has started in all districts of AJK.

He said the programme was launched by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government two years ago for providing basic facilities to people in rural and urban areas at the same level.

Besides the education sector, water, sanitation, link roads, walkways, hospitals and renovation of public places are the main areas that have been put on high priority of the PMCIDP.

Khan said all the programmes were started on the recommendations of notables of the 29 electoral constituencies of AJK and both opposition and ruling party lawmakers were getting equal funds for the purpose.

He said that AJK government started the programme with Rs997 million in 2016-17. In view of its success, the government earmarked Rs1.3billion for 2017-18 and Rs1.16billion for 2018-19.

The secretary said the funds were given from the Annual Development Programme under the LG&RD department. Through the local government Act 1990 all the funds were being transferred according to the planning manual.

He said that during the last two-and-a-half years more than 7,000 civic projects have been completed across AJK.

“The present government wants to address the civic issues at emergency level and for that we exempted the PMCIDP from PC-1,” the secretary added.

He said the PMCIDP was the only development programme of AJK through which facilities were being provided to the people of both urban and rural areas and the programme was appreciated by the opposition too.

Khan said that in the southern districts of AJK more than 90 per cent of the projects had been completed as development work there could be carried out throughout the year unlike the northern districts that were mostly covered with snow.