03 January 2004	Saturday	10 Ziqa'ad 1424

PESHAWAR, Jan 2: The provincial government's guidelines to district governments, binding them to make block allocation for the social sector uplift, are causing duplication of work and wastage of development funds, NWFP government officials said.

In line with the Provincial Finance Commission award, 2003- 04, district governments are required to allocate 70 per cent of the total development funds separately put at their disposal for the social sector comprising sub-sectors of education, health, drinking water, sanitation and roads.

The remaining 30 per cent development funds are meant to be utilized in other sectors including agriculture, social welfare, forestry, environment and industries.

Sources said that they had not been able to get a positive response from the provincial government despite repeated efforts of the district government officials regarding relaxation of restrictions in this regard.

"Provincial government's hands are tied ... It can hardly do anything at least for two more years," said the same official. Citing an example of wastage of funds, the official said that Nazim of Bannu district Malik Iqbal Khan recently told a meeting at Peshawar that his district had a total of 1,000 schools of which some 400 were redundant because of a variety of reasons.

"There are seven schools in one village comprising only 90 families," said the official quoting the Bannu district nazim. The Bannu district, added the official, experienced a mushroom growth of schools during the past few years but the district government was still required to invest more funds in the education sector in line with the PFC award.

The Bannu nazim, said the source, informed the meeting that the planning and development department, NWFP, had included a scheme for upgrading a school with only six students in the province's annual development programme, adding the project would cost the provincial kitty a sum of Rs700,000.

Similarly, in Lakki Marwat district, a scheme of school upgradation was being planned, ignoring the fact that the target school only had two students. The fact was highlighted during a recent meeting held by nazim of the Lakki Marwat district.

"There are districts needing more investment for improving roads network, electrification, sanitation, and industrial development but due to restrictions imposed by the provincial government they cannot set forth priorities on their own," said the source.

A senior government official, while defending the restrictions, said that these had been introduced to establish an effective mechanism to keep a check on the district governments' development activities, making them plan their development activities in consonance with the policies of the provincial government.

Restriction were necessitated because district governments lacked the capacity to take care of specifics involved in the development process, said the officer.