PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has created four new sectors in seven newly merged tribal districts and earmarked funds for these sectors in the Annual Development Programme for the year 2018-19.

According to the official documents, the newly created sectors include research and development, rural development and urban development while culture, tourism and archeology have been declared one sector.

An official told Dawn that schemes in the newly created sectors including tourism, culture and archeology had been included in the ADP. He said that after merger of Fata with the province, the provincial government would intervene in those sectors through its respective directorates.

He said that funds from other sectors were diverted for the new sectors. “Instead of making fresh allocations for new sectors in the ADP, the secretariat slashed funds from other sectors by scrapping schemes,” he added.

Official says allocation from other sectors diverted to new ones

The budgetary documents show that an amount of Rs612 million has been allocated in the ADP for culture, tourism, archeology, sports and youth affairs. The provincial cabinet has sanctioned funds for total 55 new and ongoing schemes in tourism, culture and archeology.

Previously, Fata Development Authority had taken the initiative to explore tourists’ sites in erstwhile Fata, but in vain. The FDA had spent over Rs20 million on consultancies in tourism sector to identify tourists’ sites in the tribal districts.

Meanwhile, education and communication sectors have received equal allocation in the ADP for seven tribal districts. The ADP for 2018-19, which carries total outlay of Rs24.5 billion, shows that education and communications sectors have been allocated Rs4.8 billion each for 339 new and ongoing schemes.

The provincial cabinet gave sector-wise approval of ADP for seven tribal districts on Monday. The federal government had earmarked Rs24.5 billion in Public Sector Development Programme 2018-19 under block allocation for the erstwhile Fata. The FDA, which works in six different sectors, has been earmarked Rs3.6 billion from the total allocated amount of ADP.

In addition to ADP, the federal government has made commitment to release funds for five projects, which include Rs10 billion under Fata 10-year Plan, Rs319 million for construction of small dam in South Waziristan, Rs1.11 billion for construction of tunnel in Mohmand, Rs250 million for Ghalanai-Momad Gatt Road in Mohmand and Rs1.31 billion for Ziarat-Dabori Road in Orakzai tribal district.

Officials said that under the Fata 10-year plan, the federal government had decided to provide Rs100 billion annually to bring those areas at par with the settled areas of the province. Contrary to its commitment, the federal government pledged to release only Rs10 billion during the current financial year, they said.

The government allocated 70 per cent and 30 per cent for ongoing and new schemes in the ADP, respectively. Housing and building sector has superseded health in the ADP. The health sector has been earmarked Rs1.6 billion while building and housing sector got Rs2.4 billion.

Size of the previous ADP for former Fata was also Rs24.5 billion. The civil secretariat could spend Rs20 billion in the previous financial year due to delay in releases from the centre and lack of capacity of the departments and its attached directorates.

Officials said that first quarter of the new financial year passed without releases due to delay in approval of ADP by the provincial government. They said that the secretariat was likely to get funds for second quarter in the end of November.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2018