K-P govt to approve induction of 8,000 levies in police

Provincial govt plans to spend Rs1.325 trillion in NMTDs under the 10-year uplift plan

PESHAWAR: The provincial government has decided to induct the remaining 8,000 personnel of the Levies forces into the provincial police force, with a summary in this regard expected to be taken up in the next meeting of the provincial cabinet.

This was disclosed by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Chief Minister Mahmood Khan on Tuesday while addressing a consultative jirga, held to discuss the problems faced by residents of the newly merged tribal districts (NMTDs).

Elders from the merged tribal districts and relevant government officials attended the meeting.

Reiterating his government’s commitment to developing the NMTDs on priority, CM Mahmood said that the provincial cabinet will soon approve the induction of the remaining levies personnel into the provincial police force.

The chief minister assured the tribal elders that all their genuine grievances will be addressed on a priority basis. He further assured them that all uplift schemes in the merged districts will be implemented in consultation with the local elders.

The jirga deliberated the ways and means for the timely resolution of the problems faced by the people and put forward recommendations for the sustainable development of the area.

The participants were briefed on various uplift schemes which have been planned for the merged districts under the 10-years development programme. The tribal elders were told that Rs1.325 trillion will be spent on the sustainable development of the merged areas over the next decade.

“Committees have been constituted in all merged districts with membership of the locally elected representatives, government officials and other stakeholders for identifying development schemes in these districts whereas a joint working group has also been constituted with additional chief secretary as its head for effective monitoring the implementation of developmental schemes under the accelerated implementation programme (AIP),” the participants were told.

It was further informed that over 1.2 million people of the merged districts will be provided with free medical facilities at designated public and private sector hospitals under the Sehat Sahulat Programme. A further Rs1.1 billion has been allocated under the Insaaf Rozgar Scheme to provide job opportunities to the youth of the merged districts.

The jirga meeting was further informed that an amount of Rs3.86 billion has been approved for missing facilities in educational institutions of the merged areas and an amount of Rs2.6 billion have been approved for the provision of medical equipment at healthcare service delivery departments of these areas.

The forum was told that 5,000 new vacancies have been created for the education sector in NMTDs, whereas over 2,000 vacancies have been created for the health sector in merged districts and recruitment against these would be completed by June this year.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11^th, 2020.