Efforts under way to mainstream tribal districts

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Chief Minister Mahmood Khan has said that his government has taken concrete measures to bring the newly merged districts into the mainstream along with bringing considerable improvement in services delivery.

He said that after the merger of erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) with K-P, the provincial departments have been extended to the newly merged districts and a special development programme initiated with the sole purpose of resolving their longstanding issues.

In a statement issued from the CM Secretariat, Mahmood said that his provincial government, during its four-year tenure, successfully tackled multiple challenges, including merger of tribal districts and Covid-19 pandemic.

It has also been successful in maintaining public confidence through people-friendly policies and development initiatives.

Despite multiple challenges, the provincial government proved that it was committed to the development and prosperity of the tribal districts and took all possible steps for the purpose. In the last four years, a number of initiatives were completed in the merged districts benefitting the local population.

Around 28,000 Levies and Khasadar personnel had been deployed in tribal districts, more than 4,000 erstwhile Fata project employees had been regularised and development projects in all sectors had been initiated for efficient services delivery.

In the health sector, 17 healthcare facilities had been outsourced while billions of rupees had been spent on provision of medical equipment and availability of emergency medicine in order to provide quality healthcare to the people at local level.

Similarly, measures had also been taken in other sectors, including the provision of scholarships to male and female students of merged districts worth Rs3.5 billion, recruitment of 10,000 new teachers, construction of 2,485 playgrounds, repair of 1,439 school boundary walls and 1,585 classrooms, establishment of 317 science and IT laboratories, solarisation of 300 mosques, construction of 441km new roads, rehabilitation of 612km existing roads, construction of 11 bridges, installation of 1,050km 11 kv lines, establishment of 48 micro hydro plants, construction of seven new grid stations as well as installation of over 1,000 transformers and 105 feeders. Apart from this, Rs1.1 billion was distributed among the small and medium enterprises in the merged districts.

Mohmand marble city was established while small industrial estates had also been set up in Bajaur and South Waziristan.

Moreover, 1,848 small and medium scale industries were revived in these districts.

In the agriculture sector, seeds for 33,000 acres of land, fruit plants for 30,000 acres of land, fruit nurseries on 28,000 acres of land had been established in the merged districts. Besides, Rs5 billion had been spent on the rehabilitation of sports facilities to promote healthy sports activities in the merged districts.

In the irrigation sector, more than 65,000 metres of flood protection walls had been constructed, 16 small dams, 38 check dams and 148 irrigation tube wells.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 11^th, 2022.