GILGIT, Sept 14: Northern Areas Legislative Assembly (NALA) has sought revision of the Annual Development Plan (ADP), a senior official said.

A 10-member NALA committee is in Islamabad to meet Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas Qamar Zaman Kaira in order to persuade him into authorising changes to the ADP, enabling lawmakers to identify projects worth Rs50 million instead of Rs15 million.

Secretary Planning and Development Northern Areas Abdul Sattar on Saturday said NALA members were pressing hard to enhance the scope of Annual Development Plan.

Talking to Dawn, he said his department was capable of coming up with a crash development plan that would envisage futuristic and comprehensive planning.

Mr Sattar said previously there was a formula for the distribution of development funds under which 20 per cent amount was spent on initiation of new projects while remaining 80 per cent on completion of ongoing schemes.

However, the federal government changed this formula and set a 50:50 ratio.

The secretary was confident that the department would face no problem in case the federal minister, who is also the chairman of the Gilgit-Baltistan, approved changes in the ADP.

He said the region had to pay Rs2.5 billion to those contractors who had accomplished uplift projects.

Mr Sattar said the allocation of development funds remained the same as the expenses increased.

He was of the view that authorities lacked reliable data on the basis of which effective planning could be done.

It is pertinent to mention that the Northern Area Legislative Assembly recently sought a review of the ADP as well as the budget.

Meanwhile, Mr Sattar said the Planning and Development Department had approved a proposal of the health department to equip the emergency ward of District Headquarters Hospital Gilgit with state-of-the-art equipment to treat heart patients.