MUZAFFARABAD, April 10: Indifference and lack of realization on part of the government functionaries is hampering the progress of a World Bank funded project aimed at conservation of bio- diversity in the area.
Official Sources told Dawn on Thursday that the community based Machiara National Park project, also meant to ameliorate the lot of the people living within the selected area in north and northwest of Muzaffarabad, was approved by the World Bank some three years ago along with two other similar projects — Hangol National Park in Balochistan and Chitral Gole National Park in the NWFP.
The Washington based Global Environment Facility (GEF) is extending more than $10 million for the establishment of these parks through the WB under the “Protected Areas Management Project”.
The share of Machiara Park from the GEF grant is around $3.42 million. The AJK government is to contribute an additional amount of Rs15.95 million for the project from its own resources.
The execution of the projects was scheduled to commence in July 2001, but was delayed for one or the other reason till December last year when finally they were launched at a ceremony in Islamabad.
At the 3-day ceremony, the WB personnel provided technical guidance to the participants from NWFP, Balochistan and Azad Kashmir on how to carry out financing and procurement processes.
The AJK government has already hired the consultancy services of the WWF-P — the Pakistan chapter of a global NGO — for the establishment and development of the park to be spread over an area of 33,000 acres.
The WWF-P has to constitute the community-based organizations besides mobilizing the community and carrying out the crediting process in around 28 villages in the selected area of the project.
The sources said that the work on the Chitral Gole Park in NWFP had begun, but that in Azad Kashmir could not begin “due to faulty official system, mainly the indifference and lack of realization on part of some senior government functionaries”.
The WB had released $100,000 million as first instalment in February last while the AJK government had also transferred Rs2 million from its share, but to the day there had been no spending, sources said, fearing that if the situation remained unchanged in the next three months, it could cost the vital project.
The officials said that due to a number of factors, mainly the security concerns in the wake of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the foreign experts hired by the WWF-P for the project had refused to come to the country. The WWF-P had replaced them with other experts, but the “negotiation committee” of the AJK government was not finding time to hold a sitting to accord approval to the replacements, they lamented.
The negotiation committee is headed by the additional chief secretary (development) and includes secretary finance, chief technical of the P&D and the secretary forests.
Apart from that, sources said, the finance department had also been adamant in according approval to the appointment of the support or counterpart staff for the project although it was sanctioned in the PC I of the project.