PESHAWAR, Sept 13: More than 20,000 auto-rickshaws — registered or otherwise — standing in showrooms are proving to be a stumbling block in the proper implementation of the President’s Rozgar Scheme because partners of the highly-publicised project are reluctant to continue the project in the NWFP, according to officials and dealers.

Major partners in the scheme are the Intel’s Tele-Centre, Mobilink’s PCOs, Qingqi and N.J. Autos, State Life Insurance, National Insurance and the government of Pakistan.

Executives of the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), the main financing agency for the project, say that auto-rickshaw manufacturers are avoiding signing agreements under the project because the provincial government is not issuing new permits for the three-wheelers.

“The project is a failure in the NWFP. The government is not issuing permits for new rickshaws being handled under the scheme in Peshawar. I have no option but to shift 44 unsold units to Punjab, where the rickshaws are selling like hotcakes,” said Mohammad Imran Khan, manufacturer of Qingqi rickshaws under licence from China.

Mr Khan said he had sustained huge financial losses as 44 units were lying unsold for more than two months at a dealer’s shop in Peshawar.

The NWFP government is discouraging auto manufacturers, making the scheme unsuccessful in the province, an official of the NBP said.

A motorcycle manufacture refused to sign an agreement with the NWFP government after seeing the situation here, some officials said.

Under the President’s Rozgar Scheme that was launched in April, loans of up to Rs200,000 were to be provided to the unemployed youth through the NBP.

The NBP’s main branch in Peshawar received 3,000 applications under the scheme but due to the problem of getting permits from the transport authorities for the 1,500 CNG and 1,500 Qingqi rickshaws only 100 cases were finalised after district governments put some pressure on the authorities, said the NBP official.

“For the past three months, we have been facing problems in getting permits for new rickshaws which is why we stopped distributing them. This has annoyed both customers and auto-rickshaw manufacturers,” a bank official said.

Unemployed youth desperately waiting for rickshaws beat up an NBP sales officer recently, said a bank official.

Transport officials on the other hand said they had already issued 50 permits for new CNG rickshaws but congestion on roads and lack of infrastructure were stopping them from issuing more permits.

“There are 8,400 registered rickshaws and we had to cancel permits of 5,000 old rickshaws running since 1985. But even this did not solve the problem of congestion on roads,” he said.

Unemployed people should opt for other businesses offered under the president’s employment scheme, like running utility and mobile general stores, setting up public call offices and tele-centres, the transport official said.