September 12, 2008	Friday	Ramazan 11, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Sept 11: The federal government has decided not to cut allocation for Balochistan from the public sector development programme (PSDP).

According to an official statement, the development projects of the province were reviewed on Thursday in a meeting between Chief Minister Aslam Raisani and the Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, Salman Faruqui.

The federal government had announced last month a cut in the PSDP allocation of Rs100 billion and started releasing only15 per cent of allocated funds to the provinces in the first quarter of the current financial year. The usual release is 40 per cent.

The meeting reviewed the progress on major highways that connect Balochistan to Sindh, Punjab and Iran.

The ministries and contractors have been directed to complete the projects in time and also set deadlines for completion of some priority projects. Balochistan’s additional chief secretary was appointed the provincial coordinator to facilitate work on the projects.

The planning commission’s deputy chairman assured the provincial leadership of timely release of funds for ongoing projects and informed them that on the instructions of the prime minister, no cut in PSDP allocation would be applied to Balochistan.

The PSDP allocation for Balochistan for the current fiscal year is Rs42.5 billion. In addition Rs3 billion was approved by the prime minister for general uplift of the province.

The meeting assured the Balochistan government that special funds would be released to make up for the losses caused by floods.