RAWALPINDI: More than half of the development funds worth Rs300 million released by the Punjab government for Rawalpindi for the financial year 2018-19 will lapse as the amount has been released a month before the fiscal year ends.

The PTI government allocated funds amounting to Rs1.1 billion for the current fiscal year for Rawalpindi district. It released Rs550 million in the first week of May and it is likely that half of the released amount will lapse.

A senior district administration official told Dawn that the funds were released for development work on the recommendations of PTI parliamentarians.

He said the government allocated the funds in February but it took it more than three months to release the amount. Besides, it would be difficult to complete the tendering process in a short period.

The government allocated funds in February but released amount after three months, official says

He said approximately Rs300 million will lapse in the current month, adding that the funds would have been utilised if they were released in March.

The official said most of the schemes were related to water, sanitation, missing facilities in schools, roads and streets. He said it took more than three months to build a tubewell, and it would not be possible to complete work on it within a month.

Another official of the district finance department said the district administration was waiting for more than Rs1.5 billion for the ongoing schemes but the government did not release them.

He said all the ongoing development schemes were launched during the tenure of the PML-N government in Punjab as it released Rs150 million each to its six MNAs of the district.

He said that half of the work had been completed but the remaining work was pending for the last 10 months.

The official said contractors had warned that the development works would need more funds in coming days if the government failed to release funds in next three months.

He said the cost of the projects would escalate with the increase in construction material cost.

Former mayor Sardar Naseem told Dawn that the provincial government had stopped development work being launched by the Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation (RMC) by utilising its own funds.

He alleged that the PTI government had released funds for the scheme initiated by the PTI members of the Parliament. Mr Naseem said the PML-N former Punjab government launched development funds worth Rs4 billion and work on half of schemes had been completed and the rest 30 to 40pc work required funds.

When contacted, PTI MPA Wasiq Qayyum said the work on the development schemes had been launched soon after getting the funds. He said the government wanted to complete the work as soon as possible.

The MPA said the remaining funds would be released in the next fiscal year.

He said at present, small schemes were included in the development works list including construction of streets, roads and bridges.

However, he said the government was saving money for big projects.

He said the previous government had failed to address water and sanitation issues in last 10 years.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2019