December 28, 2002	Saturday	Shawwal 23, 1423

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PESHAWAR, Dec 27: The district governments might not ask the NWFP authorities to release funds earmarked for the uplift plans okayed for 2002-03, as the amount allocated for the micro plans under the Khushhal Pakistan Programme (KPP) for the last fiscal year still remained unspent, sources said.

The sources expressed this concern in view of district governments’ incapacity to use the already released funds fast.

The NWFP finance managers have allocated Rs1.492 billion for 2002-03.  

“They (district governments) have been re-allocated around Rs1.5 billion of the KPP funds which they could not spend in the last financial year,” said a senior government functionary.

As per the revised budgetary estimates for the last fiscal year, the NWFP district governments had been released over Rs3.3 billion to execute development schemes under the KPP. Initially, the last provincial government had planed to provide Rs1.6 billion to the district governments under the KPP.

However, 100 per cent of the released funds (Rs3.3 billion) could not be utilised owing to incapacity on the part of the district governments to execute the KPP schemes on a fast track.

The sources said procedural delays in identifying and selecting schemes for execution under the KPP also hampered the 100 per cent utilisation of the funds last year.

The KPP funds carried forward to the current financial year— after these remained unspent till the end of the last financial year — had once again been reallocated to the district governments concerned.

An official of the local government and rural development department, NWFP, when contacted, did not see the possibility of district governments’ getting the KPP funds earmarked for 2002-03. He said they were finding difficult to utilise the funds already at their disposal.

According to sources in the provincial finance ministry, out of the Rs1.5 billion re-allocated to the district governments at the start of the current financial year, their unutilised portfolio of the KPP funds stands at around Rs1.28 billion by the start of the sixth month of 2002-03.

Out of the Rs1.49 billion KPP funds earmarked for 2002-03, Rs128.5 million have been earmarked for Peshawar district, Rs66 million for D.I.Khan, Rs46 million for Abbottabad, Rs33 million for Bannu, Rs21 million for Battagram, Rs44 million for Buner, Rs54 million for Charsadda, Rs47 million for Dir Lower, Rs32 million for Dir Upper, Rs76 million for Haripur, Rs8.5 million for Hangu, Rs12 million for Kohat, Rs81 million for Kohistan, Rs14 million for Lakki Marwat, Rs14.7 million for Malakand, Rs44 million for Mansehra, Rs129 million for Mardan, Rs40 million for Nowshera, Rs50 million for Swabi, Rs35 million for Shangla, Rs58 million for Swat and Rs4 million for Tank district.

Whereas Rs0.7 million KPP funds had been earmarked for Karak district and no fund was allocated for Chitral district.