Representational image. PHOTO: REUTERS
PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Chief Minister Mahmood Khan on Thursday directed to accelerate the utilisation of funds provided for various developmental projects in the erstwhile federally administered tribal areas (Fata) of the province as he called for appointing staff in healthcare institutions and schools in the area.
Warning letters should be given to all provincial departments in this regard.
He issued these directions while chairing a meeting to review physical progress on schemes and utilization of released funds for development projects in the newly-merged tribal districts (NMTDs) in Peshawar on Thursday.
“All the departments are responsible to complete their targets within the stipulated timelines, there is no space for time wasters,” he directed.
Summoning the next progress review meeting in 15 days, Mahmood made it clear that any progress made should be visible on the ground. He sought a separate meeting to review the progress made on the ground in the health and education sectors.
During the meeting, it emerged that a plan has been devised to monitor and track the implementation of projects. This entire programme will be overseen by a steering committee chaired by the provincial finance minister while it will be supported by a sub-committee. These committees, however, have yet to be notified.
During the meeting, the chief minister was briefed about the progress made on development projects, including under the Accelerated Implementation Plan (AIP) — a three-year plan under Rs1 trillion 10-year Tribal Decade Strategy, the Quick Impact Projects (QIP) and the Annual Development Programme (ADP).
The government had allocated Rs83 billion for NMTDs in the budget for the fiscal year 2019-20. Of this Rs24 billion has been allocated under the ADP while Rs59 billion have been allocated for 18 different sectors under AIP projects.
A sum of Rs10.1 billion has been allocated for the health sector, Rs10.692 billion for elementary and secondary education, Rs5.12 billion of the total allocation of Rs7.62 billion have been allocated for 10 schemes of sports, culture, tourism and youth affairs.
For building roads, Rs5 billion have been released out of a total allocation of Rs20 billion for 109 schemes. Moreover, Rs6.598 billion have been allocated for three different schemes under the relief and rehabilitation department and Rs850 million for three schemes of mines and minerals department.
A further Rs760 million have been allocated for social welfare schemes and Rs3.419 billion for nine schemes of the energy department.
Mahmood was briefed that a comprehensive draft of AIP policy has also been prepared by the Planning and Development department which will be presented before the provincial cabinet for approval soon.
Regarding the QIP projects, the meeting was told work on 17 of 19 projects is currently underway while Rs4.425 billion out of a total allocation of Rs8.459 billion have been released.
To solarize health facilities, Rs99.11 million out of the total allocation of Rs110.11 million have been used so far. The project concept-I (PC-I) for solarizing 300 mosques in NMTDs has been approved at a cost of Rs166.43 million. This sum has been released and the project is in the procurement phase.
Similarly, CM Mahmood was told that Rs301.4 million out of its total allocation of Rs1.1 billion had been used under the Insaaf Rozgar Scheme. Moreover, Rs10.8 million had been spent on extending the independent Monitoring Uni (IMU) to NMTDs by hiring permanent staff. Further, Rs590 million were spent on expanding the Sehat Insaaf Card to tribal families while 566,958 cards of the Sehat Sahulat Programme have been distributed thus far.
To hire staff and plug gaps in seven district headquarters (DHQ) and four tehsil headquarters hospitals, Rs238.7 million had been spent.
Around 350 damaged primary schools were rehabilitated at a cost of Rs7.9 million along with standardization of 100 primary schools.
Mahmood issued special directions to complete the solarization of 300 mosques and disbursement of interest-free loans under the Insaf Rozgar Scheme projects in the next two months.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 20th, 2019.
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