KARACHI, Jan 24: Sindh Minister for Planning and Development Shoaib Ahmed Bukhari on Wednesday expressed concern over the slow pace of implementation of development schemes in the province.

“The preparation of development schemes does not mean that development works are being carried out,” he said and pointed out that the pace with which schemes were being implemented was much slow.

He made these observations while chairing a meeting held to review the departmental performance here.

Addressing all the departmental heads, the minister said: “We are servants of people and we are to be accountable before them or else they will catch us from our collars tomorrow”.

He told the meeting that Sindh government's annual development programme stood at Rs32 billion which it raised through its own resources.

The minister said no scheme could be approved or rejected on the basis of mere funding, but when schemes were prepared it must be kept in mind that these had to be completed at all cost.

He said he was displeased over what he said the schemes not being effectively implemented, and warned the participants that in future they would be made accountable in the assembly in the manner that assembly members could question them about the performance of their departments.

Shaoib Bukhari noted that the Sindh finance department had released Rs19 billion but it had to be seen whether the schemes were implemented accordingly .

The minister did not agree with the contention of Additional Chief Secretary Development Ghulam Sarwar Khehro that the shortage of human resources was the main reason behind the non-implementation of schemes. He said now work could be done electronically, not manually.

He explained his priorities for recruitments in the health and education departments and showed his intention of setting up a committee for appointment of planning officers on a contract basis.

In the meeting, the ACS of fevelopment, the DG of monitoring and Evaluation Cell and the secretaries of other departments apprised the minister about the performance of their respective departments.

It was stated that in the first six months, which ended on December 31, 2006, Rs13,391.433 million was released out of which Rs4,895.619 million spent on development schemes. — APP