10-year plan: Consultations continue for Rs1,228 bn spending in tribal districts

PESHAWAR: Consultations over the spending plan of Rs1,228 billion development funds in the recently merged tribal areas over the next 10 years continued for the fourth consecutive day on Thursday.

An official statement said the Local Government, Public Health Engineering, Transport, Housing and Tourism & Sports departments are chalking out plans, strategies and identifying forthcoming obstacles for effective and rapid development.

The consultations are being held during a 7-day consultative workshop organised to frame a 10-year development plan for the tribal districts. The statement says that 30 percent of the funds will be allocated for the development of Local Governments in the merged districts.

As for the Public Health sector, the ongoing programmes to be completed till 2021 include the completion of 89 schemes identified in the ADP 2018-19, sanitation system programme in all tribal district headquarters, rehabilitation and solarization of 220 DWSS under the grant of USAID in tribal districts and six water and sanitation schemes in North Waziristan with the support of UNICEF.

Similarly, the proposed plan by the transport department for erstwhile Fata includes the purchase of land for seven District Transport Offices, bus terminals, housing, three trucking terminals, infrastructure development, staff procurement and the establishment of driving schools.

As for the tourism, archaeology and sports sector, the Tourism Department has planned provision of basic sports facilities, construction of 25 playgrounds at sub-divisional level, construction of 7 sports complexes at district level, development of 14 tourist destinations, exploration of 20 major archaeological sites, talent hunting with youth mobilization and direct facilitation of 10,000 youth.

According to rough estimates, the projects proposed in the health, education, gender development and social welfare sectors are estimated to cost an amount of Rs408.977 billion whereas the infrastructure development including transport, roads, communication, urban development, water management, and energy & power components are to be allocated an estimated amount of Rs433.586 billion.

Similarly, the projects proposed for the economic growth including agriculture, livestock, fisheries, industries, mines, minerals and forestry are estimated to cost Rs251.362 billion. Additionally, the resource mobilisation, institutional reforms, financial inclusion, economy and capacity building projects are estimated to cost an amount of Rs133.884 billion.