June 21, 2007	Thursday	Jamadi-us-Sani 05, 1428

TAXILA, June 20: Alleged corruption and misuse of power by the officials of the federal department of archaeology has placed the Rs200 million Taxila-to-Swat ancient sites’ conservation and development project in the doldrums.

The federal government launched the project in the year 2003 to preserve the Gandhara archaeological sites right from Taxila way up to the Swat valley.

Under the project, 18 different Buddhist sites of Taxila valley were to be resorted and developed. The proposed facilities at these sites included drinking water, chairs, washrooms and an information centres.

The revenue department transferred the funds into the account of the executing agency as work on the project progressed in phases.

According to the official data available with this correspondent, in 2003-04 a sum of Rs20 million was released but only Rs9 million were utilised. In 2004-05, again Rs20 million were released but only Rs12.50 million were put to the use. Similarly, in 2005-06 the quarters concerned only managed to spend only Rs19.5 million out of the total Rs22.5 million allocation.

According to sources, thanks to the indifferent attitude of the officials and red tape no work has been carried out on the archeological sites, though huge funds were available to implement the project.

It was learnt that the Ministry of Culture in March 2007 appointed a retired official of the archaeology department as project director in Taxila with the aim to undertake the preservation and development work in a expeditious manner. But despite this move the situation remained unchanged.

Official data showed that non-development expenditure had increased manifold as officials were drawing hefty salaries in addition to abnormal expenses in the shape of fuel, vehicle maintenance, wages of contingency labourers, etc. Some cases of “ghost” labourers had also been detected.