PESHAWAR: Over Rs71m development plan for Peshawar
BY Bureau Report
PESHAWAR, Feb 24: City District Nazim Azam Afridi presented a Rs71.48 million annual development programme before the district council on Tuesday.
In the ADP, the citizen community boards' share is Rs17.87 million, civil defence to take Rs714,800, district share to claim Rs31.73 million, town's share is Rs15.86 million and union councils to take Rs5.28 million.
Mr Afridi said the government had given preference to those union councils that had been neglected in the past. According to the new formula, he pointed out, the union councils that had received less than Rs3 million, would get Rs5 million in the current ADP.
The union councils that had got Rs2.3 million in the previous budget were earmarked Rs6 million in the current ADP, he said. Terming the ADP peanuts, Mr Afridi said latest statistics showed the population of Peshawar had reached four million, including Afghan refugees, but the district government had received only Rs71.48 million.
He said the district government would give priority to less developed union councils in making allocations. The district council will hold a debate on the ADP on Thursday. Convener Iqbal Khalil presided over the proceedings on Tuesday.
Earlier, the council members demanded installation of a fruit processing plant in the city and asked the government to expedite work on the national drainage programme in the province.
Agriculture monitoring committee chairman Nazim Haji Mohammad Hanif, while presenting his report, pointed out that the district government had not allocated funds for the agriculture sector in the budget.
He regretted that both provincial and district governments had ignored the agriculture sector, though it was considered the backbone of the national economy. He said the government had introduced a farming service policy in the province but the plan had yet to be implemented.
He said the Punjab government had fixed the rate of mark-up on agriculture loans at 8 per cent while in the NWFP the interest rate was about 16pc. He said the district government increased the Abiana rate by 25pc every year.
Mr Hanif suggested that the government should reduce the mark-up rate and give incentives to farmers. Nazim Ibadatullah Khan asked the district government to increase the quantum of cultivable area in the district.
