ISLAMABAD: The defence ministry on Monday assured a subcommittee of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Planning, Development and Reforms that a revised project concept (PC-1) for the Khanpur Dam Water Supply Project Phase III will be sent to the planning and development ministry within two days.

The subcommittee met with Chaudhry Jaffar Iqbal in the chair and with MNAs Malik Abrar and Qaiser Iqbal, officials of the defence ministry and the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board attending.

The meeting was told that the Rawalpindi and Chaklala cantonment boards will pay 7pc of the project cost within two days. The Ministry of Defence’s development committee had approved the revised PC-1 for the project in which the cost had increased by Rs100 million.

The Khanpur Dam Water Supply Project Phase III, worth Rs700 million then, was approved by the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) on April 8, 2006. Work on the project was started in 2011 and is yet to be completed due to slow funding from the federal government.

After the cost of the project increased as it was not completed on time, the federal government asked for the PC-1 of the project to be revised.

The meeting was told of the issues which had led to the delay including slow funding. “The ministry’s development committee approved the revised PC-1 and the federal government will soon release the funds,” Mr Iqbal said.

He directed the planning, development and reforms ministry to vet the project and send a report to the finance ministry for the release of funds so people are provided with clean water this summer.

Northern Bypass Peshawar

The committee then took up the matter of the Northern Bypass Peshawar project which was started eight years ago and is yet to be completed. Members of the committee expressed concern over the delay and sought a report from the National Highway Authority and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government.

The meeting was told that land acquisition had been completed and that the KP government had imposed section four to prohibit the sale and purchase of land in the area.

Members were told that the Water and Power Development Authority will soon start the moving of services in order to remove hurdles in the construction of the northern bypass.

PM’s health insurance programme

The Standing Committee on Planning, Development and Reform later met with Abdul Majeed Khan in the chair during which members of the committee criticised the authorities for not including small cities and towns in the Prime Minister Health Insurance Program and asked for polices to be formulated after public representatives were taken on board.

Members of the committee said polices had been formed without consulting main stakeholders which had created problems for public representatives in facing the people.

Chaudhry Jaffar Iqbal raised questions about the work of the planning, development and reforms committee for formulating polices for the health and education sectors. He said that the important project of the Prime Ministers Health Insurance Program was launched but its effects did not reach the common people in small cities and towns across the country.

Under the project, he said, cards will be issued to people who would be able to use them to get medical attention at private hospitals which were part of the program and that government run hospitals do not fulfil the criteria of the scheme.

He suggested that district and tehsil headquarter hospitals should be equipped with the latest machinery so that health insurance cards can also be used there.

“The government should give these hospitals autonomy so that they can improve their services and so that the prime minister’s health insurance program trickles down to the people in Punjab, KP, Sindh and Balochistan,” he said.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2017