PESHAWAR, Feb 13: The NWFP government on Tuesday decided to use force against those people who had illegally occupied a piece of land purchased for establishing a hospital for psychiatric diseases.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the NWFP health department, presided over by Health Minister Inayatullah Khan.

The meeting decided that initially a jirga would be held to persuade the occupants to hand over the land to the government so that the proposed construction of the hospital, an SOS village and an Edwards school could be started without any further delay.

It said the provincial government had purchased 188 kanals of land in the Achini village near Hayatabad. It said 90 per cent of land owners had been paid money for their land but some occupants were creating hurdles in handing over their land.

The minister told the meeting that there were only two mental hospitals in the province, one in Peshawar and the other in Mansehra. He said most of patients were seeking mental healthcare from Peshawar.

He said the government wanted to establish a modern hospital for psychiatric diseases to cater to the need of mental healthcare, adding that the land in Achini would be acquired at any cost.

The meeting formed a committee to look into the matter and submit proposals to the government regarding taking possession of the land. The committee include provincial ministers Maulana Amanullah Haqqani and Kashif Azam Chishti, Peshawar DCO and health officials.

Institute: The NWFP Health Department has asked the officials concerned to present a PC-I for the establishment of the Khyber Institute of Child Health and Children Hospital.

Officials said that it was decided in a meeting with Health Minister Inayatullah Khan in the chair on Tuesday. The first-ever KICH is being established with the financial and technical support of Japan.

The concept paper for the project had been approved. The government of Japan will hopefully provide $20 million for the institute in March, said Prof Dr Abdul Hameed, focal person for the project.

The concept paper for the project had been approved by the Economic Affairs Division, Islamabad, and was forwarded to the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which had submitted the document to Tokyo for final approval of the grant, he informed.

The NWFP had at present only 1,000 general beds for a population of 11 million children of the province, which means that there is one bed for 10,000 children. The government being signatory to about 20 international conventions relating to child rights is yet to cater to the needs of child heath in the country.

Except the NWFP, all the three provinces had child health institutes where they were given specialised diagnostic and treatment facilities.

The government had also allocated a building vacated by a French NGO to the Khyber Institute of Child Health (KICH) in Hayatabad Township, which would be renovated and refurbished, said Dr Hameed, who is also head of the child health department at the Khyber Medical College and Khyber Teaching Hospital.

The provincial government had also pledged an initial amount of Rs10 million besides provision of 16 kanal of land adjacent to that building in Hayatabad over which 250-bed purpose built children hospital would be constructed.

The need for such an institute had long been felt because the children were rushed to other cities for specialised treatment.