KARACHI: Rs1.162bn allocated for Karachi under ADP - 2004-2005 budget
By Aamir Shafaat Khan
KARACHI, June 16: An amount of Rs1.162 billion has been allocated for Karachi under the Annual Development Plan for 2004-2005 out of a total allocation of Rs5.65 billion for 16 districts of Sindh.
The allocation for the megacity, as well as the total allocation, is 29 and 25 per cent higher as compared to last fiscal's allocation of Rs903 million and Rs4.526 billion, respectively.
According to sector/district-wise breakup of the ADP, Rs631 million have been allocated for education sector for Karachi as compared to last fiscal of Rs344 million, up by 83 per cent.
The budget document shows an increase of 45 per cent in the allocation for city's physical planning and housing to Rs297 million from last fiscal's Rs205 million. New schemes include urban water supply and sanitation schemes, roads and bridges.
Karachi's health sector has been allocated Rs141 million in 2004-2005 as compared to Rs129 million in the last fiscal, which is up by nine per cent. Some of the new schemes include construction of a 100-bed hospital in Gadap Town, improvement of Sobhraj Maternity Home, provision of equipment for maternity homes, improvement of Gazdarabad General Hospital, provision of equipment at Abassi Shaheed Hospital, strengthening of physical health care and secondary health care facility in Sindh under National Health Policy, construction of hospital in Sector 2-A Corridor on National Highway and construction of a Central Medical Store for EDO Health Office at Ojha.
Culture and tourism sector has been allocated Rs11 million as compared to Rs5 million in last fiscal, depicting a rise of 120 per cent. New schemes include development of a model park at Korangi 5 and remaining work on Sports Complex in Korangi-3.
Karachi's science and IT sectors have been earmarked Rs22 million for 2003-2004 as compared to Rs17.5 million in 2003-2004. No amount has been allocated in other 15 districts of Sindh in science and IT sectors.
Ongoing schemes in IT for Karachi include setting up of local area network for CDGK Complex, improvement in Land Management System, development of CDGK's website, improvement in birth and death registration system, computer networking project for finance and planning group of offices and setting of an IT infrastructure for CDGK.
Like previous year, no allocation has been made for the environmental improvement, manpower and employment for Karachi in the new budget. In 2002-2003 budget, a total of Rs10 million had been earmarked for environmental improvement followed by Rs8.9 million for manpower and employment.
Karachi's agriculture sector has been allocated Rs23 million as against only Rs8 million in 2003-2004. The on-going projects include water storage reservoirs, improvement of environment and conservation of soil at Thado Dam, Tissue Lab, construction of four veterinary centres and disease control programme and improvement of environment. In 2002-2003, there was no allocation in this category.
Like last year, the forest, industries, mines and mineral development, water and power, transport and communication, rural development, social welfare, statistical and economic research, environment, woman development and special projects also show "no allocations for Karachi" under ADP in 2004-2005.
No allocation has been made in city's forest, wildlife and CDA sectors. The budgetary allocation for new schemes for Karachi is Rs27.5 million while Rs10 million have been allocated for on-going abandoned schemes.
