ISLAMABAD, July 17: The federal education ministry has asked the provincial governments to allocate Education Sector Reforms (ESR) specific funds in provincial and district government budgets for the year 2002-03.

Official sources told Dawn on Wednesday that a formal letter in this connection was sent to the provincial governments requesting allocation of funds.

During the current financial year 2002-03, all the four provinces and district governments would sponsor on-going ESR-related projects in their respective areas, the officials said.

Under the ESR programmes, the government had released Rs1.574 billion under PSDP 2001-02 to all provinces and federal areas. This amount was increased by Rs2 billion after the 9/11 incident with the US aid.

Officials said the ESR allocations were distributed among provinces and federal areas and the funds were released in two instalments, due to delay in starting the programme.

The provinces were informed that the federal PSDP 2002-03 did not include any project specific funds for continuation of the on-going schemes in the provinces and districts.

Provinces were advised to press the district governments to allocate adequate funds for the on-going ESR programmes in order to ensure sustainability and achievement of the desired outcomes and targets.

Official figures available with Dawn showed that the federal government had allocated Rs2.6 billion in the PSDP for the year 2002-03, while last year Rs2.5 billion was earmarked which included Rs1.57 billion share of the provinces and federal areas.

This year, the amount Rs2.6 billion did not include any share for the provinces, which will be spent mainly on secondary education, quality improvement, literacy enhancement, Madaris, education foundation, technical education, higher education and scholarships.

The Sindh government allocated Rs1.6 billion for education against Rs0.889 billion, last year, an increase of 77.97 per cent, in the budget 2002-03. The additional amount will be spent on stipends for girls in middle schools, education foundation, teacher education, technical, colleges and special education.

The Punjab government, in its budget, allocated Rs1.355 billion this year against Rs1.382 billion, last year, a decrease of 1.95 per cent. Balochistan government has allocated Rs1.171 billion for education this year against Rs0.542 billion last year, an increase of 116 per cent.

The NWFP government allocated Rs2.048 billion in the budget 2002-03 against Rs0.903 billion last year, an increase of 126 per cent.