PESHAWAR: The federal government has decided to give the status of town and municipal committee to all the tehsils and agency headquarters of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in order to ensure provision of better civic facilities to the people there.

This was stated during a high-level meeting of the officials of Fata Secretariat, which was presided over by Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra at the Governor’s House here on Tuesday. The meeting was informed that 23 tehsils and agency headquarters had been identified to be elevated to town level. The officials said that it was a foreign-funded and old initiative which was aimed at facilitating the people and to designate the identified tehsils as urban areas.

Of these tehsils Jamrud, Bara and Wana were elevated, while Parachinar, Sadda, Khar and Miramshah had already been upgraded to the municipal committee level.

According to a statement, the governor directed the officials concerned to ensure completion of the ongoing development projects in Fata within stipulated time for the uplift of tribal people. He asked the officials of Fata Secretariat to resolve issues related to the projects, adding that no compromise would be made in this regard.

Initiative aimed at giving better facilities to people

The meeting was told that the construction work on Kurram Tangi Dam would be started next month and all arrangements had been completed in this regard. It also reviewed the pace of progress of development projects funded by the USAID, Multi Donor Trust Fund, WFP, UNDP, Unicef, Asian Development Bank and others.

Mr Jhagra said that the government was implementing various projects for improving the living standard of the community and providing relief to the tribal people. He said that agriculture sector was the backbone of the economy and majority of population was associated with this sector.

He said that steps should be taken to launch projects of solar energy to run the tube-wells for irrigation. He said that like other development projects solar energy projects should also be executed expeditiously in a smooth manner.

Besides additional chief secretary Fata Mohammad Aslam Kamboh, principal secretary to governor, Sikandar Qayum, DG Projects Fata, chief of party of FISP Mohammad Faheem, and other officials attended the meeting. A briefing was also given to the governor regarding the foreign-funded development projects in Fata.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2016