PESHAWAR, Feb 22: Provincial Minister for Finance and Environment Shah Raz Khan has directed all EDOs of the Malakand Agency to expedite the ongoing development projects and ensure their timely completion.

“Effective measures will be taken to solve people’s problems and bring progress and prosperity to the agency,” he said while presiding over a high-level meeting at the Civil Secretariat here on Thursday.

The meeting was attended by MNA Syed Bakhtiar Maani, Senator Sahibzada Khalid Jan, MPA Mohammed Ali Shah Bacha, Chairman Development Committee Irshad Ali Khan, the Malakand DCO, EDOs of all departments and other officials.

Mr Khan also directed the EDOs to ensure effective delivery of services and perform their duties with devotion, honesty and efficiency so as to make Malakand a model agency.

The meeting was told that the provincial government had decided to use the land allocated for Batkhela School for setting up Batkhela College, and work on its boundary wall would be started in a week.

The meeting decided to purchase land for a girls college in Dargai. It approved the provision of budget for the construction of additional rooms and other basic facilities at several schools of the agency. It also gave approval for purchase of land to construct the upgraded Haibat Gram High School.

The meeting also decided to fill the posts lying vacant in several schools of the agency, prepare PC1 for a revenue complex and provide alternate space for the upgraded Girls Middle School Batkhela. Issues regarding the provision of staff and necessary equipment to the Batkhela Hospital were also discussed at the meeting.—PPI