PESHAWAR, Dec 3: NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani has said that the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government is concerned about children’s rights and established two centres where street children are being trained in various skills.

Addressing the launching ceremony of the Universal Registration Project in the province here on Saturday, the chief minister said: “Last year, the government had allocated Rs350 million for providing free books to girl students. The amount has been increased to Rs1 billion this year.”

Mr Durrani said that the government had already abolished fee up to matriculation level.

Other speakers on the occasion asked people to get their newborns registered so that the government could formulate development schemes in the areas of education, health, etc., according to the requirement.

“We don’t have authentic statistics about population which is extremely vital for chalking out development programmes and policies. Neither the government nor the people are bothered about birth registration. Funds are not available for this purpose,” said Brig Khalid Pervez, director-general, National Database and Registration Authority.

He said accurate data was vital to ensure good governance and improve delivery of social services and the childcare scenario.

He said newborns should be registered at the union council level and lists should be prepared mentioning names and whereabouts of all the other children.

Local government secretary Baz Mohammad Khattak said the government in collaboration with Plan International, an NGO engaged in the registration process, had launched a pilot project in Mardan, Nowshera, Swabi and Abbottabad in 2001 which had achieved 70 per cent success rate.

“Now the same project is also being implemented in other parts of the province for which the cooperation of all the government department is a must,” said Mr Khattak.

UBR National Project Manager Siddiq Ahmad Khan and Plan International Country Director Mia Haglund Heelas also spoke.