Merged districts: CM wants all vacant seats filled

PESHAWAR: KP Chief Minister on Tuesday directed the relevant authorities to take necessary measures for filling out all vacant posts in the public sector departments in the merged districts for improved services to the masses.

He issued these directives while chairing a meeting of the provincial cabinet, said a handout.

The chief secretary, senior Member Board of Revenue, additional chief secretary and administrative secretaries of various government departments were there.

Mahmood Khan directed the ministers and administrative secretaries to review the progress of work on the ongoing development projects in respective sectors on a monthly basis and submit a report to him on the utilization of funds.

He said the development schemes included in the current Annual Development Plan and not yet approved by the relevant forum, must be okayed by June this year.

The chief minister directed that the Local Government & Rural Development Department should place all the Firebrigade vehicles of the Tehsil Municipal Administrations at the disposal of Rescue-1122 within a week’s time as it was decided during the previous meeting of the cabinet.

Special Assistant to Chief Minister on Information and Public Relations Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif briefed the media persons about the decisions of the cabinet meeting. He said as a major step to facilitate the people, the government had decided to bifurcate South Waziristan into two districts — South Waziristan Upper and South Waziristan Lower.

The South Waziristan Upper will consist of Shawal, Ladha, Makin, Tayyarzai, Sarokai and Shakaee with Speenkai Rakhzai as its headquarters while South Waziristan lower will consist of Wanna, Shakai, Loi Khwla and Barmali with Wana as its headquarters.

The cabinet approved the creation of two new sub-tehsils — Ahmadzai Wazir and Utmanzai Wazir in sub-division Wazir, Bannu district for better facilitation of the public in terms of service delivery and effective management.

The headquarters of the newly-created sub-tehsils will be Domel and Bakka Khel respectively.

Barrister Saif said the cabinet approved the KP Livestock Sector Development Strategy and 10 years Business Plan to attain the objectives of the KP Livestock Policy 2018 envisaging improved livestock efficiency and production for the benefit of the livestock producers and consumers.

The Livestock Sector Development Strategy & Plan emphasizes strengthening the disease surveillance, monitoring, reporting and controlling mechanism through restructuring and capacity building of the staff as well as coordination with the farmers and private sector to encourage investment in this important sector, added.

The special assistant said the cabinet approved the New Fisheries Act, 2021 to ensure protection, preservation, conservation, regulation and management of the fisheries biodiversity and aquaculture as well as enhance the revenue of the province.

He said the cabinet approved the establishment of the Project Development Facility in the Planning & Development Department as provisioned in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Act 2020.

It is aimed at providing funds for carrying out feasibility studies and capacity building, supporting the appointment of consultants and experts, arranging investor promotion conferences and carrying out other activities that contribute to accelerating the development of PPP projects in the province.

The cabinet approved the restructuring of the Board of Directors of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Oil and Gas Company Limited with Khalid Majid as chairman of the BoDs. Ishaq Saqi, Dr. Muhammad Tahir Shah, Muhammad Yahya and Hifz ur Rehman will be its members.

The secretaries of the Energy & Power Department, Finance Department, Home & Tribal Affairs Department as well as the president of KPCCI and CEO of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Oil & Gas Company Limited will be members of the 10-members BoDs by virtue of office. The cabinet, he said, approved the compensation of Rs. 2.00 million for each household affected by the Land Acquisition for the 300 MW Balakot Hydropower Project.

The progress on the development schemes being executed at a cost of Rs 28.00 billion in the province was reviewed.

The schemes pertained to the construction of roads, water supply, health and higher education. The cabinet accorded conditional approval for the solarization of 2000 mosques.

Barrister Saif said the cabinet approved the Regularization of the 45 number trained staff of the Safe Blood Transfusion Centre in Swat and also directed initiating measures to regularize the trained staff of other blood transfusion centres.

The cabinet, he said, directed for strict supervision and monitoring of the ‘Sasta Aata’ being provided to the people at the subsidized rates.