PESHAWAR, May 2: The NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah has said large scale restructuring of the government departments has been launched and it has a unique example of creating district cadres both in health and education sectors which had resulted in devolving more powers to the districts.

Talking during the handing over ceremony of essential drugs on behalf of DFID, UK, to the NWFP government for utilization both in the settled and tribal areas which held at Governor’s House on Thursday, the governor said, it meant that we are ahead in devolving both administrative and financial powers.

In fact, he said, we have restricted role of the government to only policy formulation, facilitation and regulatory purposes and the rest of the work has to be done through private sector which has resulted in ensuring more transparency in working of the government departments. Our achievement in this connection, he added have even been recognized by the World Bank, which has offered cash grants to the NWFP government.

Talking about the strategies of the provincial government towards health delivery services, the governor said: “ We are focusing on the improvement of secondary level health care, in other words, the district and tehsil level hospitals. In fact, he pointed out, our tertiary health care is in quite good condition but is facing tremendous pressure.

In this connection the governor especially mentioned the presence of a large number of Afghan refugees in the province and said almost 40 per cent of our budget meant for the health sector is being consumed by them.

Unfortunately, he said the donor agencies have ceased their assistance for the refugees for the last so many years and said that the assistance provided by the DFID in the shape of medicines is quite encouraging for us and expressed confidence that it would continue in future as well.

Later, Mr Gareth Aicken, head of the development section from the British High Commission presented medicines, which are the part of an emergency assistance project costing two million pounds to NWFP and FATA funded by the UK’s Department of International Development (DFID).

Besides medicine, the package of aid also includes medical equipments and technical assistance and will be directed at health facilities most affected by the refugees and by drought. Mr Gareth Aicken on this occasion said the DFID is working to support the government’s poverty reduction strategy at federal level and two provinces NWFP and Punjab in particular to improve health and education.

Mohammad Asif Khan said proper distribution mechanism has been ensured in each district and agency under the supervision of the Nazim and the Political Agent.—PPI