PESHAWAR, Aug 8: The closure of the central designing office at the NWFP Works and Services Department has been causing huge financial loss to all the provincial departments, official sources said.

Two years ago, the military-led government closed the central designing office at the Works and Services Department on the pretext of downsizing.

The office had been established to come up with designs for new constructions carried out by the provincial departments.

However, the provincial departments after the closure of the office had to pay one to three per cent of the total construction cost of any building constructed by the government as consultation fee.

“The health department, for example, has to pay Rs5.6 million as consultation fee for designing the new DHQ hospital building, Nowshera, which is being built at the cost of Rs285 million,” sources said.

Likewise, all the provincial departments are now required to allocate one to three per cent of the total cost of any construction at the time of consultation, which was previously done by the central designing office without taking any charges from the departments concerned.

Now, every department is required to allocate certain amount for designing.

Sources revealed that work was still being carried out by the civil engineers of the provincial Works and Services Department and some amount was charged from the department as consultantion fee.

Media urged: The superintendent of police, Abbottabad, Kashif Alam, has urged the media to portray the positive efforts of the police force in order to build their declining image in the public.

Speaking at the concluding session of a two-day seminar arranged for the officers of the Capital City Police by the regional directorate of the ministry of law, justice and human rights in collaboration with the Save the Children here on Friday, he said that the media gave prominent coverage to the lapses of police, that caused immense harm to its image among the public.