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GILGIT, Oct 28: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has decided to withdraw its financial support from the Northern Areas Development Project (NADP) due to mismanagement of the project.
Official sources said that the project was launched in 1998 with a financial support of Rs1,170 million, sponsored by the UNDP, the IFAD and the government of Pakistan for the development of livestock and agriculture in the Diamer district.
“The UNDP has contributed assistance worth Rs170 million to the project which is now being withdrawn as some managers and officials of the project have been found settling their personal scores against one another, damaging the credibility of the project,” official sources said.
They said that the project was to be completed by June 2005, but a high level review committee comprising members from the UNDP and the IFAD submitted their report to the Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas Affairs (KANA) division mentioning that the project was plagued with problems created by its managers and officials.
They added that the KANA division in its recent meeting recommended the UNDP to close down the project as it failed to achieve its targets.
ARRESTED: Police have arrested at least 15 people in Gilgit on Sunday night and registered cases against them for indulging in aerial firing at a local bazaar, official sources said.
The police said that the accused resorted to aerial firing to deceive the people into believing that the Ramazan moon had been sighted and added that all the accused were residents of the NWFP.
Meanwhile, the police also arrested some cattle-lifters and recovered 15 farm animals from their possession in Jutal village.
The police claimed that they recovered five weapons from Waseem Abbas, Ali Sher and Hifazatuddin and registered cases against them.
