Centre asked to notify Rs 2 billion raise in NWFP net profit

North West Frontier Province Chief Minister, Akram Khan Durrani has demanded of the Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz to issue formal notification regarding Rs 2.0 billion increase in the annual net profit of hydel generation of the province as agreed with his predecessor Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali. He made this demand while addressing the inaugural session of the national workshop on Community Based Water Conservation-Lachi Experience here at a local hotel on Monday.
The workshop was jointly organised under the auspices of United Nations Development Program (UNDP), DFID, RSPN and other organisations working on poverty reduction in the province.
The chief minister said that Shaukat Aziz, then Finance Minister was also present on the occasion, when Zafarullah Jamali made this pledge with NWFP in June this year.
He said that according to A.G.N Qazi formula the annual share of the province was Rs 18 billion, but they were paid only Rs6.0 billion. He further demanded of the Prime Minister to facilitate the arbitration process between NWFP and Wapda for the resolution of the outstanding issue of net profit.
He was optimistic that after the resolution of the matter and payment of outstanding of Rs345 billion, the province would be in position to support other provinces in providing food items.
Durrani said that the provincial government had prepared feasibility reports of 20 small dams in southern districts of the province and demanded of the federal government to include it the development programme on priority bases to provide funds for their construction.
The chief minister said that provincial government would support all donors, who were interested in working for poverty reduction. He said that he himself belonged to a drought-hit district and had faced such experience. He said that due to unavailability of potable water, the ratio of water related diseases in southern district were higher than other parts of the province.
In this connection, he assured full cooperation to Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP), saying that the department of Planning and Development has already been directed. He appealed the donor agencies to take into government into confidence before initiating any such project in the province as the provincial government will extend all possible cooperation to them.
Durrani said that if the federal government was really interested to make NWFP self-sufficient in food items then it should provide them Rs 45 billion for the construction of small dams in the province. He was of the view that after the construction of those dams, the province would not only become self-sufficient in wheat, but would also supply wheat and other food items to Balochistan.