PESHAWAR, Jan 13: The NWFP Chief Minister, Mohammad Akram Khan Durrani, on Thursday reiterated his opposition to the construction of Kalabagh Dam and warned that imposition of any decision from the 'top' would trigger disunity.
The chief minister, while talking to reporters from Swabi here on Thursday, said that chief ministers of the four provinces had a meeting in Lahore some time back wherein they had agreed to avoid any issue that could breed disunity.
"We have limited resources, and the Bhasha Dam should be taken first," he said. The chief minister said that if there were enough resources than before launching any project public debates and seminars should be organized to make the people aware of the advantages and disadvantages of a project.
The agreement among the people was necessary, and if decisions were imposed without consultation, it would result in disunity. The NWFP chief minister met an eight member delegation of the Abasin Union of Journalists, district Swabi, which called on him at the Frontier House here on Thursday morning.
Provincial Minister for education, Maulana Fazle Ali Haqqani, was also present on the occasion. He also informed the delegation that the department would also look into the wrong doings in the under construction townships.
He told the delegation that a project worth Rs30 million was recently inaugurated in district Karak for extension of gas from Gurgori and Makori which would be further extended to other areas.
The chief minister said that he, along with the federal minister for natural resources, had visited Gadoon Industrial Estate almost a year ago and had discussed with the industrialists the revival of sick units in the estate.
Due to disadvantage of location, the federal government should give some incentives so that the industrial units could compete with other provinces but the problems still persisted and remained unsolved, the CM said.
He told the delegation that the government was taking steps to develop and provide facilities to the district. The people of six southern districts would soon have the gas facility.
However, he said, the government wanted to extend sui gas to the forest areas including Swat, Dir, Malakand, Galyiat and Naran so as to protect forests in these areas.
These areas could be developed to attract tourists to earn precious foreign exchange, generate avenues of livelihood to reduce poverty in the province. He assured the delegation that promises made with the locals would be kept.
While discussing the problems of salinity and water logging in some parts of Swabi which was caused by Ghazi Barotha, the chief minister said that he would discuss the problem with the federal government so that a project to control salinity and water logging in the affected areas could be initiated.
