The luckiest district: Nowshera receives Rs783.181m uplift funds in current financial year

PESHAWAR: The home district of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has remained luckiest of many districts in the province as it has received Rs783.181 million of the uplift funds so far in the current financial year (2017-18) that also included Rs524.157 million regional development projects of the Annual Development Programme (ADP).

The district has also got the allocation of Rs136.656 million special initiative programme of which Rs68.328 million has already been released for various projects.According to the document retrieved from the Finance Department, the allocations do not include development funds released to district government, tehsil, village councils in the district.

However, the development funds tally included Rs110 million released for the non-ADP development works by the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) in Nowshera. However, a portion of the amount is also being spent in Swabi.

Similarly, an amount of Rs58.894 million has also been released for the non-ADP projects of electrification works by Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) in Nowshera.The Finance Department data, provided in response to the request for information under the Right to Information Act 2013, shows that in the local development sector, Mardan remained another lucky district in the province as it got huge funds under the special initiative programme.

The government had allocated just Rs75 million for the district in the current fiscal under the special programme. However, the data suggests that only the provincial assembly constituency (PK-30) of Provincial Education Minister Muhammad Atif Khan in Mardan has so far received Rs300 million under the programme in the district. Swabi and Charsadda districts have been released Rs25 million each under the same programme.

Under the regional development sector that also includes road sector, Nowshera got special attention of the chief minister and it received Rs524.157 million during the first half of the current financial year, followed by Swabi that got Rs722 million for the projects in the sector. While Charsadda got a mere eye-wash release of Rs4.395 million under the special initiative programme and Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan districts could not receive a single penny of the programme.

In the industry sector, Nowshera has received Rs61 million for the establishment of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa University of Technology Nowshera, for which a total amount of Rs122 million has been allocated in the ADP. The two campuses of the university, which are being set up in Swabi and Charsadda districts, for which even the PC-II has been approved, have got no funds.

Nowshera has also received Rs65.641 million of the Rs121.676 million funds allocated in the current ADP to establish a model coalmine in Nowshera.Similarly, it has received Rs55 million of the Rs110 million allocated under the ADP to establish the Emergency Rescue 1122 service in Nowshera under the Relief and Rehabilitation sector.

Bannu and Swabi districts also received Rs55 million each to set up the facility, while Dera Ismail Khan got Rs37.958 million, Charsadda, Rs25 million, and tehsil Rustam/Katlang in Mardan has been released Rs30 million to establish the Rescue 1122.