LANDI KOTAL (Khyber Agency), July 3: NWFP Governor Syed Iftekhar Hussain Shah has said that the government is giving top priority to provision of health and education facilities in tribal areas.

Addressing two separate gatherings at Bara and Jamrud in Khyber Agency on Saturday, the governor said that the government had increased annual spending for education in Fata from Rs60 million to Rs88 million.

He said that if the amount allocated by donors was also included in the total, it would come to around one billion rupees. This, the governor added, was not a small sum.

The success of the education system, the governor said, depended upon the sincerity of the teaching staff in Fata.

He said that the old system of sanctioning schools in the name of tribal elders had been abandoned and instead educational institutions for both boys and girls would be sanctioned for the whole community.

He stressed upon the tribal community to identify weaknesses in the system.

He said that bringing illiteracy to an end in the tribal areas was the vision of the government. "Education is our first, second and third priority," the governor remarked.

He added that the government would continue to work with these priorities.

He said that every tribal agency was earmarked Rs500 million for development every year.

The total annual development funds for Fata were increased from Rs3.5 billion to Rs4 billion, he said.

At a function at the Higher Secondary School in Jamrud, the governor distributed more then 700 World Space Digital Radio sets among the middle and high schools in all the seven tribal agencies.

During a visit to the Dogra Civil Hospital in Bara, the governor suspended its medical superintendent on the complaints of the public regarding negligence of doctors from their duties.

The governor announced provision of new medical equipment and appointment of a surgeon at the hospital.

Addressing a tribal jirga in Bara, the governor said that construction work on a small dam at Bara would start soon.

The capacity of the dam would be more than that of Warsak dam, he said.

He said that all agency headquarter hospitals would be provided state-of-the-art equipment and would be made model hospitals. The governor announced that work on the proposed Shalman Water Supply Scheme would be initiated in the coming six months.

The scheme, once completed, would fulfill the drinking water needs of Landi Kotal tehsil residents.