MANSEHRA, Sept 15: NWFP Chief Minister Akram Durrani said on Sunday that the construction of the Kalabagh dam was a sensitive issue and the leaders of all political parties and the people of the four provinces should be taken into confidence before taking any step in that direction.

Speaking to newsmen at a luncheon hosted in his honour by District Nazim Syed Hussain Shah here at the circuit house, the chief minister said it was astonishing that the centre was following an obstinate policy on the issue despite opposition by three provinces.

Replying to a question, he said he was in favour of renaming the NWFP but a consensus was required on the issue.

He dispelled the impression that he had allotted most of the developmental funds for his constituency.

Funds had been allocated to all the members of the provincial assembly without discrimination, he said and added that the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government believed in uniform development of all the areas of the province.

He said the provincial government had allocated Rs37 million for development projects in the tribal belt of Kala Dhaka.

Earlier, the chief minister distributed documents of 10-marla plots in a ceremony held in the district council hall among 30 people whose houses had been washed away in floods and thunderstorm in Dadar Qadeem in September 2001.

Speaking on the occasion, he said the MMA wanted to replicate in the province the model welfare state which was established by Hazrat Omar (RA).

He said the heads of all the departments in the province had been directed to solve the people’s problems on priority basis and any officer found guilty of negligence would be taken to task.

He said a strategy had been chalked out for immediate implementation of the uplift schemes approved in the provincial annual development programme.  

He said the planning and development department had been directed to rectify the minor mistakes in the PC-I of the projects on the spot and not to send them back to the districts as it caused delay in implementation of the development schemes.