KARACHI, Oct 20: The Sindh cabinet on Wednesday announced lifting of the ban on recruitment to fill 42,886 posts lying vacant in different departments. The annual financial bill under the head of salaries and perks is estimated to soar up to Rs3 billion following the recruitment.

This was one of the decisions taken by the cabinet at a meeting held here at the New Sindh Secretariat with Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim in the chair.

Among other measures taken by the cabinet was a directive to the P&D department that uplift schemes be evaluated and monitored and a report be prepared on the performance of district governments. The meeting, which lasted more than four hours, expressed its dissatisfaction over the absence of desired impact of the development schemes launched under the ADP despite release of sufficient funds.

Briefing newsmen about the deliberations of the meeting, Sindh Information Secretary Mehtab Akbar Rashdi said that it was decided that 23,201 vacancies in education department, 6,162 in health department, 8,430 in home and coordination department, 1,181 in irrigation and power department and 4,615 in food and agriculture department be filled as per the prescribed rules.

Regarding uplift schemes, she said that while reviewing progress on the development projects launched under the ADP 2003-2004, Chief Minister Arbab Rahim, Finance Minister Syed Sardar Ahmad, Revenue Minister Imtiaz Ahmad Shaikh, Local Government Adviser Waseem Akhtar and Mines & Mineral Development Minister Irfanullah Khan Marwat expressed their dissatisfaction over the overall impact.

According to her, they noted that under the ADP, out of the allocated funds of Rs11,000 million for 1,675 schemes, an amount of Rs9,832 million had been released between July 2003 and June 2004 for the execution of 421 schemes while 1,254 schemes had been executed by 16 district governments.

The cabinet noted that even in Karachi, repair and carpeting work had been undertaken only on main arteries whereas the condition of side streets continued to be dilapidated.

It, therefore, decided that some sort of monitoring mechanism be evolved to evaluate performance of the district governments.

Mr Waseem Akhtar suggested that inquiries into the utilization of funds be conducted by the provincial government.

Syed Sardar Ahmad was of the view that the ADP schemes ought to be result-oriented, instead of being activity-oriented.

Regarding processing and approval of new schemes by provincial and district governments, the cabinet directed the concerned departments to furnish the proposed plans to the relevant authorities latest by October 30 because the schemes with an estimated cost of more than Rs10 million would have to be referred to the ECNEC for necessary approval.

The chief minister stressed that the ongoing schemes be completed first so that their visible impact could be gauged. Explanation be called in the cases where any department had failed in complying with the official directives, he added.

For taking up the matter of financial problems with the federal authorities, the cabinet constituted a committee headed by the chief minister. Members of the committee are ministers for finance, mines & mineral development, and planning & development, as well as adviser on local government.

The cabinet also laid down the criterion for the approval of MPAs' development scheme and set the condition that any plan proposed under this scheme should not have recurring expenditures and be based on one-time cost. Such schemes include construction of schools' compound walls; building of link roads and culverts; installation of hand pumps; developing of playgrounds and parks; laying of gas pipelines; and setting up of libraries in consultation with the concerned district government.

The cabinet took decision on the principle of the Sindh agro-forestry lease policy 2004 under which a total of 133,040 acres of irrigated and non-irrigated land will be leased out through auction in the blocks of 40-acre per person for a period of five years. The lease will be renewable for another five-year period. The minimum rate fixed is Rs2,000 per acre/per annum for irrigated and Rs1,000 per acre/per annum for non-irrigated land.

There are 31,098 irrigated areas and 101,902 non-irrigated areas in Sindh and some of them are under illegal occupation. According to the decision, the occupants of the areas will be allowed to participate in the auction for lease. Under the rules, 25 per cent of the leased out area will be reserved for forest plantation and the rest for cultivation.

The cabinet formed a committee, comprising ministers Arif Jatoi, Mustafa Kamal and Irfanullah Marwat, to review the draft internal audit act-2004 and submit its report with the cabinet.

Acting upon the paper, prepared by the P&D department, on poverty alleviation strategy for Sindh, the cabinet formed a committee to execute the strategy. Headed by the Minister for Planning and Development, Shoaib Bokhari, the committee has ministers Sardar Nadir Akmal Leghari, Hamida Khuhro, Faqir Jadim Mangrio, Qamar Mansoor, Dr Saeeda Malik, Imtiaz Ahmad Shaikh and Pappoo Shah as members.

The cabinet turned down the proposal of enhancing consultation fee by 6.5 per cent in respect of the management of new Malir Housing Scheme.

It agreed in principle to set up the Sindh Government Servants Housing Foundation on the pattern of an institution established in by the Punjab government, and decided to move a bill in this regard in the assembly.

The cabinet also agreed in principle to establish the Sindh Institute of Trauma and Orthopaedic Llizarob, and decided to move a bill for the purpose in the assembly.

The item on the meeting's agenda, presentation of the national anti-corruption strategy by the National Accountability Bureau, was deferred, for the third time, due to the pre-occupation of the NAB chief.

SUGAR MILLS: Chief Minister Dr Arbab Rahim has said that growers and sugar mills' owners are of equal importance and they should make joint efforts for national development, agencies add.