HYDERABAD: Sindh government’s consultant on poverty reduction strategy (PRS) Dr Kaiser Bengali has said that the province needs to set up regional growth centres (RGCs) to ensure efficient use of existing resources. This would also lessen financial cost of different schemes, he said.

The leading economist was speaking at the local press club on Friday. Giving a presentation on Chuhar Jamali town of Sujawal district, he said this area had been selected as one of such RGCs being set up under the European Union-sponsored project, of which he was serving as the consultant.

He described Sindh as “Pakistan’s OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries)” pointing out that the province contributed the country’s 70pc gas and 80pc coal.

Once Sindh used to provide resources to Middle East but now it is faced with poverty and this is too evident. Sindh government had approved PRS under which this pilot RGC project at Chuhar Jamali is being executed.

Dr Bengali said that as per the poverty chart, Hyderabad being an urbanised centre has the lowest poverty score of 36.62pc and Thatta has the highest score of 72.97pc followed by Tando Mohammad Khan’s 70.43pc. There are many small villages in the province which were scattered and almost every village has a school. As per one study, [an average] seven students study in a class. “We are working to provide all amenities at a point which will save government’s money,” he said. Clusters of villages where RGCs are to be set up have been selected. Chuhar Jamali with a population of 18,000 people is Sujawal district’s RGC where road, drainage, sewerage, drinking water, health and education schemes are being executed in collaboration with the provincial planning & development board (P&DB). The RGC will have houses, walkways and commercial, social and educational facilities within its 30km radius.

Dr Bengali said all these schemes had been approved by the P&DB and designed, for the first time, by experts as per international standards.

Dr Bengali proposed that government should plan 3,000 small cities instead of improving 350,000 villages.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2021