PESHAWAR: Over 2,000 Khasadar and 1,300 Levies personnel in tribal subdivisions have been absorbedin the police force since the merger of Fata with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa three years ago, the provincial task force on merged areas told informed on Thursday.
The task force met here with Chief Minister Mahmood Khan in the chair.
The meeting was also attended by cabinet members Akbar Ayub, Shaukat Yousafzai, Shah Mohammad Wazir and Karmran Bangash, Peshawar Corps Commander Lt-General Nauman Mehmood, Inspector General of Police Moazzam Jah Ansari, Frontier Constabulary commandant Salahuddin Mehsud and senior officers.
According to an official statement, the participants discussed security situation, progress on development projects, administrative measures and matters related to the Fata-KP merger in Hassankhel, Darra Adamkhel, Bhatani, Jandola, Wazir and Darrazanda tribal subdivisions.
They were informed that all sanctioned posts of the police for TSDs had been filled, whereas the procurement of vehicles, arms and other equipment was in progress to strengthen the police in the erstwhile six Frontier Regions.
Task force decides funds for police in tribal subdivisions to be provided on priority
The task force decided that funds required to strengthen the police in those areas would be provided on a priority basis.
It directed the relevant authorities to make the alternate dispute resolution mechanism functional in the region to resolve local disputes and said commissioners and deputy commissioners should come up a way forward for the resolution of tribal boundary disputes through the jirga system.
The forum approved several measures to improve security situation, accelerate work on development projects, and resolve the people’s issues in tribal subdivisions.
It was informed that a total of 515 developmental projects had been reflected in the annual developmental programme for those six TSDs and of them, 375 would be implemented through the annual developmental programme and the remaining under the accelerated implementation programme for the merged tribal districts.
The estimated cost of those 515 projects is Rs59 billion.
Officials told the meeting that the government had accorded a special focus on the development of key sectors in the region.
They said developmental projects valuing Rs2.97 billion had been reflected for the elementary and secondary education, Rs1.84 billion for public health engineering, Rs2.43 billion for agriculture sector, Rs1.11 billion for irrigation, Rs8.8 billion for road sector and projects amounting to Rs2.7 billion had been reflected for sports and tourism sectors.
The task force decided about the upgradation of educational and health facilities on need basis and directed the health department to make necessary arrangements to manage basic health units in those areas as 24/7 facilities.
It directed the relevant authorities to take immediate steps to address the shortage of staff in educational and health institutions of the region on priority.
The forum approved the launch of new road projects in those areas and directed the relevant commissioners and deputy commissioners to fix priorities for the purpose.
The chief minister said sustainable development of TSDs and welfare of their residents was among his government’s top priorities and all available resources would be utilised for the purpose.
He directed the relevant district administrations to ‘wisely’ utilise available resources in order to provide the maximum relief to the people of those areas and resolve their genuine issues on priority.
The chief minister also issued directions to them to focus on drinking water, road, health and education projects.
Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2021