PESHAWAR: The Fata Development Working Party has approved a proposal to double scholarships for tribal students enrolled in professional colleges.

A handout issued here said that every tribal student in professional educational institution would receive scholarship whether he or she had got admission on reserved seat or open merit. The FDWP meeting held here with Fata additional chief secretary Azam Khan in the chair.

The participants discussed more than 100 schemes and accorded approval to all except few.

The schemes approved in the meeting pertained to health sector, irrigation, livestock and dairy development, regional sectors, local government and rural development, education, forestry, public health engineering, communication, power, fisheries and sports.

FDWP also approves uplift schemes for tribal region

The meeting gave nod to enhance scholarship for the 1,629 medical students from Fata studying in different medical colleges of the country from Rs12,000 to a handsome amount of Rs48,000 per year.

Likewise, scholarships for graduate and postgraduate 182 students enrolled in the country’s various agricultural educational institutions were also increased from Rs24,000 to Rs48,000 per annum.

The FDWP, after threadbare discussion, also approved a scheme, the Rs49.584 million Fata health nutrition programme, which is meant for the provision of a superior quality food supplements to the 18,000 pregnant females all over Fata to ensure provision of better health facilities to them.

However, on the directives of the ACS that every pregnant women should get supplement, the health authorities pledged to ensure the provision of the food supplement, Ensure, to all the estimated 30,000 pregnant women in Fata.

Azam Khan directed the health authorities to make a comprehensive plan for providing health cover to 700,000 families residing in the Fata under certain conditions that would not only benefit tribesmen but would also go a long way in the eradication of polio from Fata besides considerably increasing the literacy rate in the region.

According to the proposal, every family in Fata will be given health insurance ensuring that anti-polio drops are administered to the children and that people send their children to schools.

Approval was also accorded to the scheme, the Bridge Financing for Polio Vaccination Campaigns, to make sure that every child in Fata is immunised against the crippling decease.

The FDWP also approved the Rs133.85 million ADP scheme for the establishment of Directorate of Information Fata.

The strengthening and improvement of Peshawar–Torkham Road Khyber Agency Section 7 from

33 kilometers to 37 kilometers was also approved by the participants, who also okayed a scheme for the provision of biogas plant to the tribal families having five or more cattle.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2015

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