KARACHI, Nov 17: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has asked the heads of various departments to monitor development works in order to ensure their timely completion.

While presiding over a meeting of provincial secretaries and department heads at the CM’s House on Saturday, the chief minister said that schemes of Thar coal and energy development, solar energy, wind energy and other resources were being developed along with the construction of road infrastructure.

He said the government must see and assess overall performance of all departments. He said that the bureaucracy was an important factor of any government which followed its policies and implement its programmes aimed at providing facilities to the people.

The chief minister asked the officials why development projects and schemes were not being completed on time when funds had been made available to their respective departments. He added all departments had been provided necessary allocations but the utilisation was not satisfactory.

He asked the officials to improve their performance on administrative side.

“We will continue the policies of welfare of people which will be followed and implemented by the administration, with overall improvement in the performance,” he said.

Earlier, Additional Chief Secretary (planning and development) Malik Israr in a briefing said that the total development outlay for the year 2012-13 was Rs231 billion, including Rs161 billion of provincial, Rs50 billion of foreign project assistance and Rs20 billion for districts.He said that an amount of Rs11.26 billion was allocated for ongoing schemes and Rs4.83 billion for new schemes. In total, all Rs3.41 billion were released and so far Rs1.14 billion had been spent on special projects.

The chief minister said that next four months were very important and all departments should concentrate on completion of maximum schemes.

Regarding appointments on government jobs, he said that certain departments and certain officers were violating rules.

All departments after seeking proper permission could process for filling vacant posts, he said.

“Nobody can make direct appointments,” he said, adding that those officers violating government rules would have to face strict legal action.

The meeting was attended by Sindh chief secretary Raja Mohammad Abbas, additional chief secretary (P&D) Malik Israr, additional chief secretary (finance) Mohammad Arif Khan, principal secretary to the chief minister Mohammad Siddique Memon, and other officials.—APP