Release of only 27pc of allocated funds by Centre irks Sindh

Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said on Thursday the federal government under its Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2017-18 had launched 126 projects in Sindh, of them the provincial government was executing 27 projects of Rs27.326 billion, against which the Center had only released Rs7.385 billion, or 27 per cent of the total allocation.

“This is the importance the federal government is giving to Sindh,” he said while presiding over a preparatory meeting for the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting to be held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on February 26 in Islamabad.

The meeting was attended by Minister for Industries Manzoor Wassan, Chief Secretary Rizwan Memon, P&D Chairman Mohammad Waseem, Principal Secretary to CM Sohail Rajput and others.

The agenda of the NEC meeting includes a review of the PSDP 2017-18 and socio-economic objectives of the 12th Five-Year Plan 2018-23. In the meeting, it was pointed out that the federal government through its PSDP had launched 126 schemes in Sindh, of them 27 with an allocation of Rs27.326 billion were being executed by Sindh government. It is quite surprising that against the allocation of Rs27.326 billion the federal government has released only Rs7.385 billion by January 20, 2018, which is merely 27 percent.

It was also pointed out that there were six PSDP projects of Rs744.887 million

in Sindh against which no funds had been released yet. These seven schemes include roads of Hyderabad under the Hyderabad Development Package of 2006, and hospital and water supply schemes of Nawabshah.

Chairman Planning & Development Mohammad Waseem told the chief minister that there were three schemes of construction of small dams, lining of distributaries and the rehabilitation of irrigation and drainage system for which the federal government had only released 20 per cent of the allocated amount.

At this, the chief minister said that as per the fund release policy of the Planning & Development and Reforms Division of the federal government, 70 per cent of the allocated amount should have been released. It shows that they are violating their own policies, he said.

For the project of the construction of small dams, delay action dams, recharge weirs and ISSO barriers in Sindh with Rs12,211.0 million, the federal government has allocated only Rs800 million, leaving a Rs7,900 million throw forward. The project of lining of distributaries and minors in Sindh has been launched for Rs13,828.32 million against which only Rs400 million have been allocated, which shows a Rs6,020.32 million throw-forward. Similarly, Rs16,795 million schemes of revamping/rehabilitation of the irrigation and drainage system of Sindh have been launched and for the current year only Rs400 million have been allocated, leaving a throw-forward of Rs4,046.35 million. At this, the chief minister said that it showed that the schemes would never complete if such meagre amounts had been allocated.

The chief minister recalled that the revision of the S-III project was cleared by the CDWP (Central Development Working Party) in July 2017 with an increase in the cost from Rs7.982 billion to Rs36.117 billion. The project was taken to ECNEC (Executive Committee of National Economic Council) where the P&D chairman urged the federal government to share 50 per cent of the cost of the revised PC-I, but the federal finance secretary reluctantly agreed to provide funds to some extent at a later stage; however, minutes of the meeting are still awaited. The federal government was said to have demonstrated a similar attitude in respect of sharing one third of the cost of Five Combined Effluent Treatment Plants projects has been demonstrated.

P&D Chairman Mohammad Waseem told the chief minister that Rs1,567 million was the cost of the project with 50:50 cost-sharing between the Sindh government and the federal government. The Sindh government, for the early completion of the scheme, provided a throw-forward amount of Rs392.29 million on account of the federal government’s share, which has yet to be adjusted. On this, Chief Minister Shah said that he would urge the prime minister to release the allocated amount of Rs392.29 million to the Sindh government for the Urban Water Supply Scheme Benazirabad included in PSDP 2-17-18.

The federal government has to release the remaining throw-forward amount of Rs175.944 miilion to the Sindh government for the schemes of improvement of roads in Hyderabad. The chief minister also prepared a case to take up with the prime minister that work on the Jamshoro-Sehwan Dual Carriageway should be started at the earliest.

In the meeting, it was also pointed out that the National Highway Authority had launched Rs319 billion road sector schemes against which Sindh had been given a share of Rs5 billion. This was termed an injustice with the people of Sindh.