KOHAT: The district development advisory committee (DDAC) has identified projects worth Rs620 million from oil and gas royalty funds which will be executed soon.

MPA Ziaullah Bangash, chairman DDAC, told councillors here on Tuesday that the PC-1 of schemes would get approval from the district development committee (DDC) headed by deputy commissioner.

He said the projects included pavement of streets and construction of drains, mosques and seminaries, water supply, irrigation schemes and roads in 11 union councils.

He said Rs170 million each had been set aside for KP-37 and KP-38 constituencies and Rs340 million for KP-39, which was 50pc extra as oil and gas was produced from the latter.

Talking to Dawn, executive officer finance Wahid ur Rehman said funds would be utilised on all new schemes and no allocation had been made for ongoing projects. However, he said if need arose for provision of money due to cost escalations in the current projects the matter would be taken up at a special meeting.

Meanwhile, councillors from Urban-6 alleged that Ziaullah Bangash was diverting schemes to his constituency, and demanded equal distribution of funds in all union councils.

District councillor Shahid Mehmood, in a statement, reminded the MPA that during 2013 general elections the Urban-6 people had voted for him and now it was their right to have share in development funds.

MPA Ziaullah Bangash also assured social organisations that he would meet the Federal Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique to ask him to restart the railcar service between Kohat and Rawalpindi which was suspended in 2013.

He said he along with MPA Najma Shaheen had moved a resolution in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly in that regard which would hopefully be passed in the next session.

It may be recalled that four months ago Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, during his visit to Kohat, had promised that the railcar service would be launched in two months.

The people have been holding peaceful protests on every Friday at the railway station for last one year demanding resumption of the service.

EXAMINATION CENTRES: The regional assistant director of Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad, Prof Tariq Hussain Qureshi, has said a network of examination centres and holding of workshops at the doorstep of students has been planned.

Talking to Dawn on Tuesday, he said a proposal was under consideration to induct female staff in all the existing and future examination centres and workshops to encourage more female students from the far flung and backward areas of the Kohat region.

He said the AIOU also planned to start stipends for deserving students to increase literacy rate in the distanced learning system.

He said 23,000 male and female students were registered from Kohat, Karak, Hangu, Frontier Region of Kohat, Orakzai Agency and Kurram Agency, and that this year sale and examination centres had been established in Thall and Doaba in Hangu district.

Similarly, he said study centres would be opened in Lachi, Shakardarra, Ustarzai, Bilitang, Dhoda, Bilitang and Gumbat.

Published in Dawn September 21st, 2016