MANSEHRA, Dec 31: The district Nazim of Mansehra, Azam Khan Swati, announced various measures aimed at increasing literacy rate in the area and improving standard of education in government schools.
Mr Swati told a news conference at the local press club that Rs60.5 million had been earmarked for the education sector and promised that not a single rupee would be lost in commission or bribe.
He said that under a public and private collaboration programme, evening classes would be launched in the state-run schools which, he added, would not only help increase the literacy rate but also provide employment to young graduates.
The Nazim was confident that the programme would bring about a change in neglected areas like Mansehra where poor segments of society would be able to get education on cheaper rates.
He said that English medium would be ensured in four schools in each union council. To educate teachers, he said, an on-the-job training programme costing Rs8 million had been initiated in the district.
He pointed out that Rs150 million had been earmarked to provide furniture, etc., to schools, Rs300,000 for lavatories and water supply, Rs5.5 million for repair and reconstruction of classrooms and Rs15.62 million had been earmarked to provide electricity to schools.
He said that under the drought programme Rs9.2 million had been kept to dig wells and provide hand-pumps in the district.
He further said that Rs6.4 million from the foreign fund would be utilized for schools in the district. He added that all these programmes would be completed by June.
ADB PLAN: Mansehra will get potable water through an Asian Development Bank project of Rs320 million, sources said.
Presently the water being supplied to the city and its adjacent areas is unhygienic and polluted in which the ratio of filth and flour mills waste is over 40 per cent.
A survey conducted by Dawn showed that the basic sources to provide water to the city are Booth Katha stream and some other water supply schemes that are situated between Datta, Ghazikot and Upper Chania. But, the waste and filth of the city, thrown in the sources, have contaminated the water.
In 1999 when over a dozen locals had died of cholera in Mansehra and its adjacent areas, the government started work on a plan for providing the water to the area from Hazeera.