PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan on Tuesday directed the communication and works, health, elementary and secondary education, and higher education departments to ensure the proper handing and takeover of new buildings of hospitals and educational institutions within a month.Chairing a meeting here, Mr Mahmood asked the C&W department to complete work on the buildings on an urgent basis and make arrangements to hand them over to the relevant departments, according to a statement issued here.

He said the departments should take all necessary steps for the early provision of the required staff and equipment to those buildings.

The participants were briefed about the progress on the handing over of the new buildings of schools, colleges and hospitals across the province.

Besides health and finance minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra, elementary and secondary education minister Akbar Ayub and adviser to the chief minister on higher education Khaleequr Rehman, the meeting was also attended by the relevant secretaries and officials.

Says he will review progress on matter after a month

The chief minister said he would convene another meeting exactly after one month to review progress on the matter.

“By that time, all departments should complete their respective responsibilities. In case of unsatisfactory progress, strict disciplinary action will be initiated against the responsible people,” he said.

Mr Mahmood said the people should benefit from development schemes without delay and that was the only purpose for which their money had spent.

He said he won’t tolerate negligence or delay in that respect.

The chief minister said though the coronavirus pandemic had affected the pace of development projects in the province, even then the government had to ensure better service delivery to the people.

He directed ministers to hold regular meetings of their respective departments to review progress on development schemes.

Mr Mahmood said the development of both education and health sectors was the top priority of his government.

He asked the finance department to prioritise the approval of the Schedule of New Expenditures for the creation of new posts in health and education departments.

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2020