Sindh govt to make one model village in every distric

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Tuesday decided to make a model village in every district of the province in the next financial year for which he sought recommendations from the elected representatives of the people.

“The model village should not have more than 1,000 population and will be given the facilities of school, hospital, water supply, sanitation, roads, street lights, community centre and transport facility.”

He was presiding over review meetings of the ongoing 401 development schemes launched under the provincial Annual Development Programme (ADP) in five districts for Rs28.97 billion at the CM House.

Murad said that in the next financial year, his government had decided to declare one village in every district as a model village. The village would be provided best education, health and water supply schemes and even the streets of the village would be made with bricks and they would have street lights. “I want you to sit together and identify such villages as per this criteria,” he told the elected representatives of different districts.

The CM said that the elected representatives would have to take ownership of the ongoing development works in their respective areas. “I need your input for the next ADP 2020-21 and keep a weather eye on the ongoing development works, particularly the pace of work and quality so that the people could have best schemes in their area,” he urged the elected representatives.

The meeting reviewed the development works in five districts of Sindh: Badin, Thatta, Sujawal, Mirpurkhas and Tharparkar.

The meeting was told that 75 schemes, including 26 new ones, had been launched for Rs3.24 billion through provincial ADP in Badin district. The government released Rs2.34 billion, which was 72 per cent of the allocation against which utilisation has been recorded at Rs1.76 billion.

The meeting was told that the schemes included four of the Auqaf department, seven of the school education department, three of the college education department, one of the health department and others.

The CM directed the relevant departments to complete 35 schemes by the end of this financial year. For Thatta district, the meeting was told that 78 schemes of Rs3.16 billion had been launched there, of which 12 schemes were those that had allocations of up to Rs25 billion allocation and their funds were released in one go.

The CM said that against the allocation of Rs3.16 billion, he had released Rs1.29 billion but the utilisation was only Rs457.14 million, which is 37 per cent of the released funds. “This is unacceptable,” he remarked.

The development portfolio of Sujawal district was Rs1.16 billion for 46 schemes, against which the government had released Rs5.56 million while the expenditures had been Rs319.57 million, which was 57 per cent of the released funds.

The ongoing schemes in Sujawal comprised two of the Auqaf department, on of the culture department, six of the school education department, two of the college education department, one of the livestock and fisheries department and other.

In Mirpurkhas district, different departments had launched 80 schemes, including 34 new ones with an allocation of Rs6.76 billion against which Rs4.74 billion had been released while the expenditures amounted to Rs3 billion, which was 63 percent of the releases.

The school education department launched seven schemes of Rs328.6 million in Mirpurkhas while the college education department was working on two schemes. The local government department launched seven schemes worth Rs392.98 million, including one scheme of water supply and sanitation and three of roads.