June 19, 2006	Monday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 22, 1427

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RAWALPINDI, June 18: As the provincial government spends millions to promote the slogan of Hamara Khawab Parha Likha Punjab, Rawalpindi has been badly neglected in the provincial budget for 2006-07.

The documents of the Punjab budget carry no mention of any allocation for the setting up of a polytechnic institute in Rawalpindi. In contrast, an amount of Rs382.45 million has been earmarked for the establishment of a similar institute in Taxila, the home constituency of Federal Minister for Labour and Manpower Ghulam Sarwar Khan.

The minister had announced in Rawalpindi on March 20 that the government had approved the establishment of polytechnic institutes in Rawalpindi and Taxila.

The establishment of the institute was a long-standing demand of the people of Rawalpindi. Mr Sarwar Khan, who had said that the government was returning the institution which the city had lost decades ago, was not available for his comments despite numerous telephone calls.

Rawalpindi had one polytechnic institute located on the Peshawar Road but it was taken over by a defence institution in early 1980s. Since then, no such institute has ever been set up in the city. Thousands of students from the city move to other cities to acquire technical education.

The institute in Taxila will spread over 100 kanals acquired from the Heavy Mechanical Complex (HMC), while there is a complete silence over acquiring any land for such an institute in Rawalpindi.

Rawalpindi ranks top with literacy ratio of 70.5 per cent (age 10 years and above) among the 34 districts of the province, according to statistics released by the Punjab government. But this impressive performance does not seem to be enough for the provincial government to meet the dire need of a polytechnic institute in the city.