Halted development: Projects costing billions still pending

Three legislators haven’t submitted their proposals yet.

GILGIT: At least 30 of the 33 Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly (GBLA) members have submitted proposals worth billions of rupees for development in their respective constituencies, GBLA sources said on Sunday.

“Proposals from 30 legislators have been submitted for approval,” said an official wishing not to be named. In September 2011, the regional government had asked all members of the GBLA to submit proposals according to the requirement of their constituencies.

However, three legislators — Education Minister Dr Ali Madad Sher, Works Minister Bashir Ahmed, and Nasir Khan — have not submitted their proposals yet, causing a delay in the process which was due to kick off in 2011.

The total cost of projects to be undertaken during 2012-13 stands at around Rs1.2 billion, said the official. He added that a total of 400 schemes have been submitted to the regional government so far. These include road, irrigation and infrastructure projects. “The G-B government has allocated Rs40 million for every legislator to enable them to initiate development projects in their constituencies,” said the official.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 23^rd,  2012.