PESHAWAR, March 18: The National Commission for Human Development is planning to expand its operations to eight more districts of the NWFP, Minister of State Dr Nasim Ashraf said here on Saturday.

These districts are Charsadda, Swabi, Bannu, Lakki Marwat, Dera Ismail Khan, Dir (Lower), Battagram and Shangla.

The commission is already serving the districts of Karak, Mardan and Mansehra and the tribal region of Bajaur, according to Dr Ashraf, who is also chairman of the NCHD.

Dr Ashraf was talking to NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani here at the Frontier House.

The chief minister said the provincial government had already adopted the NCHD programme on education and health.

“The MMA government has incorporated universal primary education and literacy into the developmental programme of the province. This will really improve the literacy rate of the NWFP,” said Mr Durrani.

Dr Ashraf said the NCHD programme had been designed and launched in an effort to facilitate the provincial government and help it achieve goals related to education and health.

With the intervention of the NCHD, he said enrolment of schoolchildren had witnessed a significant increase. The chief minister lauded the NCHD’s efforts and thanked it for extending technical and financial support for the last three years.

Mr Durrani said that the Elementary Education Foundation (EEF) had successfully completed nearly 4,173 adult literacy centres in 24 districts of the NWFP. “These adult literacy centres have been completed on the model of NCHD. Similarly, the education department has enrolled thousands of new children in schools, following the footsteps of the NCHD,” he said.

Dr Ashraf told the chief minister that the commission had launched school health program in the NWFP and nearly 700,000 mothers had been trained on home-made ORS.