K-P govt committed to help Swat

Focus will be on rebuilding communication, education, health infrastructure, promoting tourism in the area.

PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Government has chalked out a comprehensive plan to start the work on reconstruction projects in the flood and militancy-hit Swat district, Environment Minister Wajid Ali Khan said on Sunday.

“Reconstruction work on mega projects, including the building of roads and bridges, will start in two months on a large scale in the district,”
he said.

The recent floods and militancy have badly affected the infrastructure of the once famous destination of Pakistan. The government is committed to rebuild the destroyed infrastructure even better than before and on ‘scientific lines’, he said. Under the policy, he said, special focus will be paid to rebuild the communication infrastructure for the people of Swat as well as the rebuilding of attractive areas to promote tourism in the area.

Also, the reconstruction of education and health infrastructures is top on the list of priorities of the K-P Government in Swat, he said.

The Environment Minister also said the government was striving to ensure transparency and impartiality in the distribution of funds to flood survivors through the ‘Watan Cards’ system. Wajid Khan said the government has adopted a zero error policy in ‘watan cards’ distribution that is aimed to provide financial assistance to deserving families as soon as possible.

“The government is monitoring the distribution process closely,” Khan said, “any deserving families left out from process of Watan cards would also be compensated”.

The distribution of seeds and fertilizers has also started to flood hit farmers so that they can sow seeds timely. The Environment Minister said that the floods had damaged the agricultural sector extensively but the government was committed to revive the sector immediately.

“Special attention is being given to precision land levelling, water management programs and the provision of wheat production technologies by provincial and federal agriculture research organizations,” he said.

“We need to launch an awareness campaign for farmers, so they know how to deal with any situation,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 15^th, 2010.