PESHAWAR: The civil society activists on Tuesday urged the government to take all stakeholders on board before launching mega development schemes in the province, especially in major cities, to prevent people from inconvenience.

The call was given during a dialogue organised by the Individualland, an NGO, at a local hotel.

Members of various civil society organisations, officials of the local government department and students from different educational institutions attended the event.

Among noted speakers were Asif Baghi, Aurangzeb Yousafzai, Dr Saira Noor, Syed Hashim, Imran, Mohammad Saleem and Abdul Qudoos Khan, whose speeches had a special focus on the recently-launched Bus Rapid Transit project in Peshawar.

They said the government had launched it without taking stakeholders on board and therefore, the fears were rife that development work would cause serious traffic problems in the capital city.

The speakers said any planning made by either provincial or local government for the people’s development won’t succeed unless the schemes were launched after seeking their opinion on them.

They said the development schemes had both positive and negative aspects but the ruling parties were least bothered about keeping those negative aspects in view while executing such projects and always preferred to positive aspects just to gain fame.

The speakers said the government officials were bound by duty to pay heed to the people’s criticism and negative impacts of development schemes, and take corrective measures to prevent problems.

They said the people from different segments of society always had an independent opinion about any development plan but the government rarely took it seriously and therefore, the issues always got complicated over unilateral decisions.

The speakers said the government should keep in mind the negative impacts of any development project to avoid criticism of the people and inconvenience to them.

They expressed the hope that work on the Peshawar BRT project would be completed within the stipulated period.

The speakers suggested that the government ensure the provision of quality bus service to the people to overcome traffic jams and check possible joblessness of public transport operators after the launch of that BRT service.

They also called for the provision of alternative employment to drivers and owners of taxis, auto-rickshaws, mini-buses and wagons saying such people will lose employment opportunities in future. Earlier, Individualland programme manager Farhan Khalid gave a detailed presentation on the role of stakeholders in the government’s development activities.

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2017