Three small dams, Cadet College among 12 projects dropped for current fiscal

PESHAWAR: The development planners in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have dropped 12 crucial development projects in the current financial year 2015-16 that also include three small dams and a cadet college in the province.

The document shared with The News shows that these projects are in addition to the 124 projects that were earlier dropped for being unapproved at the end of the third quarter of the financial year.

The dropped projects included the Rs30 billion project of productivity enhancement through conservation and efficient use of water resources for higher agricultural production.

The project was planned with the total cost of Rs30.683 billion that also includes Rs2.17 billion federal government’s share and Rs3.433billion share of the provincial government, while the farmers were also supposed to put their share of Rs5.489 billion in the project.

The provincial government had only allocated Rs250 million of its share of Rs3.4 billion, pushing throw-forward share of the project to Rs3.18 billion, while due to the lukewarm interest of the authorities concerned the shares of other stakeholders could not be fetched in time.

The provincial government has decided to establish one cadet college in the province, for which it had estimated a total cost of Rs700 million, but it could allocate Rs50 million for the project in the current budget. It has now dropped the project and due to the meagre allocation, the throw-forward of the project is pitched at Rs650 million.

The dropped projects also include three small dams of the water sector. The provincial government in its last budget planned to construct small dam in Ghazi tehsil, Haripur district. It allocated Rs50 million for the construction of the dam, but it has now been dropped, according to the sources who shared the document with The News.

A detailed design and construction of Rocha dam in Bannu district was also supposed to be carried out with the cost of Rs8 million, while feasibility study of Jaroba dam in Nowshera district was also planned to be completed with an estimated cost of Rs10 million. The cost of the project was allocated, but it could not be utilised and the P&D included the project in the litany of dropped projects for the current fiscal.

The project to construct and rehabilitate irrigation channel in Usherai Darra, Dir Upper district, for which a cost of R100 million was estimated and a mere amount of Rs15 million was also allocated, has also been dropped.

The Rs50 million project of solarisation of the irrigation offices in Peshawar has also been dropped for the current fiscal.

Besides, the establishment of the cadet college, other projects of the higher education sector, which have been dropped, was the launching of household survey for assessment of out-of-school children, for which an amount of Rs60 million had been also allocated. While the third project of the sector was the feasibility study for the establishment of new universities, campuses and colleges and an amount of Rs10 million was allocated for the same but all the three projects have been dropped for the current financial year.

Feasibility study and construction of sub-jail in Banda Daud Shah, Karak, (Rs150 million), construction of Zakat and Ushr Offices in Peshawar (Rs35 million) and ICT Endowment Fund of Rs20 million in the Science and Technology and Information Technology Department could also not be initiated during the current fiscal that would end on June 30.