PESHAWAR, March 3: The Nazim of the Lakki Marwat district, Humayun Saifullah Khan, has deplored the provincial government's failure to release Rs24 million which was promised as a grant some eight months back to the district by the federal government.

According to an official handout faxed to newspaper offices here by the Lakki Marwat district government on Wednesday, the district nazim in his recently established telephonic contacts with Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali and Federal Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz took up the matter of non-transfer of funds by the provincial government.

The handout said that the planning division, Islamabad, had released Rs24 million to the NWFP government - through cheque number B-439902 - on Aug 13, 2003, for onward disbursement to the Lakki Marwat district government.

The grant was given to help the district government take appropriate measures to counter growing effects of drought in the district. "But it is lamentable to note that the provincial government, instead of following clear-cut directions from the planning division, Islamabad, did not release the funds to the district government so far," the handout said.

It further said that despite the fact that the district nazim had contacted all top officials of the province time and again it was to no avail. Due to non-cooperative attitude of the provincial rulers and refusal to release the amount, the district, badly hit by the drought last year, was confronting difficult situation to take appropriate measures.

The prime minister and the finance minister, the handout further said, were contacted to seek their help in pressuring the provincial government to release the grant without further delay.

The district nazim apprehended that if the amount was not released forthwith it would lapse on June 30, 2004, at the end of the current financial year. It said the district was facing 37,000 metric tons wheat shortage because of non- availability of sufficient water resources to cultivate some 263,750 acres of baron land.