December 6, 2002	Friday	Shawwal 1,1423

PESHAWAR, Dec 5: The under-developed districts of the NWFP have partially been benefited by the implementation of the resource distribution plan envisaged under the Provincial Finance Commission (PFC) award, according to official sources.

“The under-developed districts of the province are now getting more (funds) than the money they have been transferred annually in the past for development purposes,” said an official of the provincial government. Although larger chunk of provincial development funds goes to the districts with greater population and to those which have traditionally been taking more funds in comparison to the less developed districts of the province, the resource distribution formula envisaged under the PFC award has partially benefited some of the under-developed districts including Kohistan, Dir Upper and Dir Lower, Shangla and a couple of other districts, according to the sources.

As the province has been experiencing greater flow of funds to certain specific pockets, particularly, to those areas from where the chief minister of the time belonged, remote areas making part of the southern and northern regions of the province remained under developed lacking sufficient infrastructure facilities to cater to the needs of the areas.

To rectify the situation, the resource distribution formula, envisaged under the PFC award, backwardness and lag in infrastructure have also been given wieghtage (in addition to population) for the purpose of determining monthly share of every district from the provincial divisible pool.

Out of the 100 per cent funds meant for 24 district governments for taking care of their development and recurring expenditures, 50 per cent would be distributed on the basis of population, 25 per cent on the basis of backwardness and remaining 25 per cent on the basis of lag in infrastructure (physical position of infrastructure every district has).

Some of the districts that had traditionally been getting more funds, have experienced decrease in flow of funds from the provincial government this time round.

“For example, Nowshera district - making part of the central NWFP - has experienced reduction in its transfers from the provincial government this time round in comparison with the past,” said a senior government functionary.

In line with the estimated resource transfer to districts during the 2002-03 financial year Abbottabad district would get Rs903m on the basis of its share determined by resource distribution formula envisaged under the PFC award—in its first year of implementation.

The outgoing provincial government had estimated to transfer over Rs15.2bn among the 24 district governments in the 2002-03 financial year to cater to their salary and non-salary budgetary requirements including part of development sector.

Of this amount, Bannu would get Rs604m, Battagram Rs293m, Buner Rs379m, Charsadda Rs725m, Chitral Rs442m, D.I. Khan Rs885m, Hangu Rs251m, Harripur Rs759m, Karak Rs498m, Kohat Rs577m, Kohistan Rs360m, Lakki Rs469m, Lower Dir Rs641m, Malakand Agency Rs453m, Mansehra Rs1008m, Mardan Rs1059m, Nowshera Rs725m, Peshawar Rs1413m, Shangla Rs331m, Swabi Rs765 m, Swat Rs946m, Tank Rs243m and Upper Dir district would get Rs426m.