Health sector gets Rs205b, higher education Rs34b

Rs3.5 billion will be spent on women’s empowerment

PESHAWAR:

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government has allocated Rs205.72 billion for the health sector including Rs178.20 billion for current expenditure and Rs23.31 billion development expenditure. Similarly Rs4.2 billion will be received as foreign aid.

Finance Minister Taimur Saleem Jharga on Monday said that Rs25 billion had been allocated for the PTI flagship project of Sehat Insaf Card. He said that in the past one year eight lakh families were treated on the card.

He said that the treatment of five more diseases would be included in the card including cancer, liver transplant and bone marrow transplant.

He said that Rs53 billion had been allocated for MTI hospitals and four next medical colleges including Rs3 billion for renovation of district hospitals.

The minister said that the provincial government was improving the health sector considerably and Rs2.7 billion had been allocated to run 58 secondary care hospitals in 24 districts of the province on the public-private partnership basis.

Similarly, Rs2 billion had been reserved for Primary Care Revamp Program and for the first time in the history of K-P, around 1,000 had been made autonomous under DDO code.

“In 15 districts basic health units would be run by private sector for which Rs2 billion has been allocated,” he said, adding that Rs500 million subsidy will be given to run Medical Teaching Institutes (MTI) on public-private partnership basis.

He added that a maternal ambulance service will be started in the province at a total cost of Rs1.3 billion.

Higher Education Sector

In the budget 2022-23, Rs34.191 billion has been allocated for the higher education sector by the provincial government.

In the annual development program (ADP) Rs5.3 billion has been allocated this fiscal year. Rs3.3 billion has been allocated for the establishment of nine universities in the province. The total cost of the project is Rs24 billion spanning many years.

Similarly, Rs510 million has been allocated for the establishment of sub-campuses in Mardan, Buner, Shangla, DI Khan, Hangu, Dir Lower and Dir Bala.

The minister said that Rs1.2 billion will be provided to five universities as financial assistance and 129 colleges would be constructed at a total cost of Rs42.5 billion of which Rs2.6 billion has been allocated this year.

He maintained that Rs3 billion had been allocated to help universities overcome financial crisis.

Moreover, Rs1 billion has been reserved for Insaf Education Card and Rs1.4 for Pak-Austria University in the new budget.

Elementary and Secondary Education

Over 105 projects have been included in the elementary and secondary education sector costing Rs144 billion.

Rs3.4 billion has been allocated for the establishment of 711 schools that are being constructed at a total cost of Rs36.6 billion.

By the same token, Rs2 billion has been allocated for the purchase of furniture for schools.

Women’s empowerment

Government has allocated Rs3.5 billion in the fiscal budget 2022-23 for women empowerment especially in the merged districts.

Jhagra while presenting the budget said that under the programme, skill development centres would be set up in the merged areas for girls while vocational centers would be established in Swat, Abbottabad and DI Khan.

He said that women crisis centres would be set up in Peshawar in order to facilitate them and address their grievances.

Giving details of the budget allocation, he said that Rs2.4 billion had been allocated for women in SMEs, Bank of Khyber, SAAF and RAAST financing schemes.

He said that Rs54 million had been allocated for providing indoor game facilities to women at all divisional headquarters, besides Rs340 million allocated for women universities.

Jhagra said that the current budget for women welfare was Rs100 million, adding that Rs50.5 million had been allocated for women vocational centres and Rs50 million for women protection.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 14^th, 2022.