KARACHI: Water, drainage, agriculture, irrigation network, health, education, poverty alleviation, rehabilitation of flood-hit areas and broken road networks would be the main focus of the new fiscal year's development spending in Sindh, said official sources in the provincial planning and development (P&D) department.
While the size of the Annual Development Plan (ADP) for fiscal year 2011-12 is yet to be finalised, senior government officials in the chief minister house have said that the new ADP will be in the range of Rs115 billion.
However, the provincial government's economic managers in the P&D Department are not sure whether such hefty funds would be allocated for next year's development expenditures in the province.
"The uplift budget for new fiscal year is likely to be in the vicinity of Rs85 billion, up around 10 per cent from Rs77 billion of the ongoing FY," a senior official at the P&D department said.
The official sources said that in next year's ADP, an amount of Rs20 billion would be allocated for new schemes and remaining Rs65 would be earmarked for ongoing schemes.
An amount of Rs10 billion, out of Rs20 billion to be earmarked for new ADP schemes, would be spent for providing 10,000 to 25,000 residential plots (each plot would be of 80 yards) at cheaper rates to the poor in 21 district headquarter cities and another 1,000 to 2,000 in small towns of these districts. People of Hyderabad and Karachi would not benefit from the schemes, said Sindh government's economic manager.
"Providing basic infrastructure and amenities including clean drinking water, schools, and hospitals in these residential would be the responsibility of the government," he added.
He said further that initiating such residential facilities along with health, education and basic amenities to the people in their own areas is meant to discourage migration from rural to urban areas and thereby check rapid urbanisation.
Quoting from Sindh's development strategy for next year, the official also said that a Rs4 billion scheme was also being included in to the new ADP for rehabilitation of 10 flood-hit towns and their basic infrastructure including drainage system, water supply system, street lights, schools, hospitals and playgrounds would be restored to pre-flood state to help people restart their socio-economic lives. The towns are: Jati, Sajawal, Bobuk, Gaji Khawar, Thull, Humayoon, Ghouspur, Sultankot, Tangwani and Karampur.
Besides, another scheme of Rs4 billion is being considered and hopefully would be included in the new ADP for construction of some 40,000 houses in two hundred villages of the province, which would be given to the flood victims free of cost, the official told this scribe.
"Several schemes for improving accessing to safe drinking water are also being mulled proposed by the PPHU for new ADP. One of such major scheme is estimated to cost Rs1 billion for 2,500 water filtration plants. Having a capacity of treating 5,000 gallon water, each water filtration plant would serve about 25 villages," he said.
An amount of Rs500 million would also be earmarked for providing proper water and drainage system to the Kotri Industrial area.
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