Lieutenant General Ali Muhammad Jan Aurakzai NWFP Governor has said that a massive development process for socio-economic uplift of the people of Fata is in progress with special focus on promotion of education, health and infrastructure development facilities presently.
To make the initiatives of the government fully effective and result oriented in this respect, he added, serious efforts are also under way for capacity building of the respective nation building departments at every level.
He was talking to a group of participants of the 90th advanced course in Public Sector Management, currently in progress at National Institute of Public Administration, Lahore comprising officers of BPS-19 of both the federal and provincial governments, who called on him at Governor's House here on Wednesday.
The governor said, to achieve the desired goals, a comprehensive plan of action had been chalked out for this purpose. The plan, he added, to be implemented up to 2015 will cost almost Rs 130 billion and will cover all the important sectors.
Simultaneously, the governor said, efforts are also underway to further strengthen the writ of the government and consolidation of the prevailing system of governance in the area.
Responding to a number of queries from the participants, the governor said, in fact, the area had been neglected in the past for quite some time.
As a result of this neglect, the people of Fata had been living in a state of isolation and poverty since long and the situation across the border had made the things more complicated. However, he said, efforts are under way on all fronts to improve the situation.
Responding to another point, the governor said the establishment of Fata Development Authority was part of the ongoing initiatives meant for capacity building of the government institutions and ensures better utilisation of the public money. In fact, he said, we are trying to bring development in a systematic way and capacity building of the respective institutions was a prudent way to derive better results.
Meanwhile, during a detail briefing, the delegates were informed that the regular annual developmental budgetary outlay which was only Rs 1170 millions in 2001-02 had been enhanced to Rs 6.2 billions during the current financial year, wherein Education Sector was receiving almost 21 percent share. Similarly, it was stated, almost 19 percent of the budgetary outlay was being spent on road network development whereas 16 percent of the amount had been earmarked for regional development programmes.
As far as generation of economic activities is concerned, it was pointed out, every effort was being made to bring more and more area under cultivation in Fata through better irrigation facilities and improved farming practices. Similarly, the delegates were also informed about exploitation of mineral resources with special focus on best utilisation of latest means and it was told that public-private partnership was being encouraged in this respect.
The delegates were also informed in detail about the existing monitoring system to ensure optimum utilisation of public resources in Fata.
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