PESHAWAR, Dec 26: The NWFP cabinet has approved promulgation of the North West Frontier Province Forest Ordinance 2001 subject to certain amendments to be finalized by a sub-committee of ministers. The ordinance has been prepared after consultation with the major stakeholders in the sector, including donors as well as NGOs.

The cabinet met on Wednesday at the governors house, Peshawar. NWFP Governor Lt-Gen (retd) Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah presided over the meeting.

Provincial cabinet was informed that the NWFP forest, fisheries and wildlife department has initiated a number of reforms in the sector consisting of a new forest policy, the adoption of a new forest management system and reorganization of the department.

The policy, institutional and management, reforms need to be supported by new forest laws so as to facilitate their implementation as also to provide legal cover.

The new forest ordinance has been drafted with major objectives, including involvement of local communities and other stakeholders in the formulation and implementation of forest management plans and operational policies.

It also contains effective protection, conservation, management and sustainable development of forests and consolidation and updating of existing laws with a view to enacting a comprehensive law which adopts modern concepts and promotes present day objectives of forest management, besides providing means to make forest protection and administration effective and is in consonance with the existing forest policy and environmental laws.

In order to dispose off wheat stock held by the NWFP food department at an early date, the cabinet discussed various options and decided that at present wheat should continue to be sold to flour mills at the rate of Rs8,600 per tonne. The situation will be reviewed again in the first week of February 2002.

The cabinet also considered and approved the structure of the independent environment department with slight amendments. All five components — environment, forest, wildlife, fisheries and transport — will now be merged in a single environment department.

It may be recalled that the governor had ordered the creation of an independent environment department, consisting of the environment, forest, wildlife and transport departments, to tackle the growing environmental problems of the province.

Amendments for retention of receipts by autonomous institutions and others also came under discussion by the provincial cabinet in detail. It was decided that eight hospitals will be given complete financial autonomy. These will be supported for the next five years by the provincial government. Thereafter, the grant-in-aid to the hospitals will be progressively reduced and the hospitals will be required to mobilize their own resources.

The hospitals will ensure that the autonomy being provided to them to run their own affairs will not adversely effect the poor clients. On other hand, their efforts will be directed to improve services for the poor and needy.

The matter of licensing for commercial power crushers of sugarcane was also discussed in the cabinet meeting.

It was decided that all Gur Ghanies, including commercial and non-commercial, should be registered on payment of Rs500 as registration fee to regulate/keep record of the Gur industry in the province. Power crushers of more than 12.5 horsepower should be treated as commercial cane crushers. Their owners will be required to obtain licence for which annual registration fee will be Rs50,000 per crusher. District revenue officers of the respective districts will be responsible for registration of all Gur Ghanies and issuance of annual licences to commercial cane crushers.