HYDERABAD, April 5: The additional chief secretary, Planning and Development, Shahzado Shaikh exhorted officials to follow procedure but at the same time expedite the process of completion of schemes whether new or on-going so that funds earmarked for schemes were utilized and not surrendered.

He was presiding over a meeting of officials of nation-building departments of Hyderabad, Badin, and Thatta districts at the Shahbaz Hall on Thursday.

The meeting reviewed the pace of progress on development programmes of 2001-2002 including the annual development programme and the Khushhal Pakistan Programme.

The additional chief secretary asked officials to prepare employment generating schemes to provide jobs to the poor people adding that funds would be made available for such schemes.

He directed the officials of the communication department to prepare/suggest schemes regarding roads so that it could be included in the next ADP.

Similarly, irrigation department representatives were asked to prepare proposals for rehabilitation of all regulators/gates throughout the province besides alternate proposals for effluent discharge.

He directed that these must be sent to his office by the 2nd week of April so that funds could be made available for them in the next ADP.

Referring to the development process and availability of funds, the additional chief secretary disclosed that a sum of Rs11 billion would be given by the Asian Development Bank for road schemes in the province, and added that a directive had been issued by the P&D that any additional amount required to complete an on-going scheme to be completed before June 30 would also be made available.

He said that proposals/schemes were to be submitted on PC-I forms within a week.

The additional chief secretary said that 25 per cent more funds would be allocated for schemes falling under the Khushhal Pakistan Programme.

He said that under various programmes and projects an amount of Rs80 billion for the province would be available.

Later, reviewing the development schemes of Hyderabad District, the additional chief secretary expressed deep concern over the performance of Wasa officials for failing to get the sewerage schemes approved from the district development working party (DDWP) despite passage of sufficient time and availability of funds to the tune of Rs500 million.

He directed that if they were facing any difficulty in getting the schemes approved they should contact him personally but it must be ensured that schemes of sewerage for Hyderabad city were taken up at the earliest.

He said that an amount of Rs10 billion had been earmarked for development schemes of Hyderabad District.

Earlier, the DCO, Hyderabad, Abdul Qadir Mangi briefed the additional chief secretary about the pace of progress of schemes falling under the ADP and KPP programmes.

The EDOs of Badin and Thatta, who were also present in the meeting, gave a progress report of schemes in their district.

The additional chief secretary took serious notice of the absence of relevant officials of the departments concerned.

He directed the EDO, Thatta, Badin and others to ensure that they themselves monitored uplift schemes in their districts.