BUNER/SWABI, May 4: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti has said the newly-introduced Rokhana Pakhtunkhwa Talimee Programme (RPTP) will prove a revolutionary step in eliminating illiteracy from the province.

He said 100 schools were being established under the scheme in the first phase to provide free education to about 60,000 students, both males and females.

He said the number of these schools will be increased up to 500 in the second phase at the cost of Rs1 billion.

He expressed these views while addressing launching ceremonies of the model schools in Daggar area of Buner and Naranji village of Swabi on Monday.

Speaking at the ceremony at Daggar the chief minister said that unfortunately previous governments had overlooked this responsibility. He said out of 987 union councils in the province there were 152 union councils where there was no government school for boys and 481 UCs had no government school for girls.

Education Minister Sardar Hussain Babak and RPTP director Ahmed Khan also addressed the gathering in Daggar.

Free education to boys and girls will be provided under the public-private partnership in the union councils that have no government middle and high schools for boys and girls.

Earlier, addressing the launching ceremony of Islamia Model School in Swabi, the chief minister said the Awami National Party government had given great importance to the Swabi district while rejecting the opposition claim that a single mega project was not initiated in the district. He said Rs650 million would be spent on the development works in the district. He said he announced Rs600 million in his earlier visit to the district and now he announced additional Rs50 million for the development works.

Of the total amount, the district authorities had already received half of the money and the remaining amount would be given to them after upcoming budget, said the chief minister. He also announced Rs200 million for the water supply scheme of the Naranji area. He said the boundary wall to the Naranji village would be constructed to protect the village from flooding in the monsoon season.

The chief minister, after knowing that there was not a single school for girls in the area, announced a government girls high school for Naranji village.

He said he would visit the NA-12 and PK-32 constituencies soon after the provincial budget to announce a special package for the two constituencies.