Fiscal Year 2017-18: NA body approves Rs 12343.118 million for housing projects

National Assembly Standing Committee on Housing and Works on Tuesday approved PSDP for M/o Housing and Works for financial year 2017-18 amounting to Rs 12,343.118 million to be spent on 149 schemes. MNA Haji Muhammad Akram Ansari chaired the committee meeting. The committee scrutinised budgetary proposals of 179 projects relating to Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), worth Rs 17,199 million, for financial year 2017-18.
The committee discussed and approved PSDP for Housing and Works for financial year 2017-18 amounting to Rs 12343.118 million to be spent on 149 schemes and executed through Pakistan Public Works Department (Pak-PWD). The ministry proposed cost of 179 projects amounting to Rs 17199 million; however, the committee directed for exclusion of 46 projects amounting to Rs 4854.88 million. The committee was of the view that 46 excluded projects are unnecessary and should be taken up after necessary need assessment and completion of the ongoing projects.
The committee observed that the ministry has issued advertisement for Thaliya Housing Society, Islamabad, whereas there is no land physically available with the ministry and there are also issues like water supply and access to the society. During previous meeting, the committee sought terms and conditions for the society and requested to take them up on the floor of committee to discuss in detail, he added.
The chairman committee expressed displeasure over the advertisement which the ministry gave in a newspaper on February 15 with respect to the scheme's allotment. The committee put up the issue for the next meeting so that it can be settled down. The committee while going through the PSDP proposals observed that delay in execution of work on the schemes resulted in PC-I revision, cost escalation and over-burdening the national exchequer. The committee, therefore, directed the Ministries of Planning and Finance to ensure timely release of budgetary allocations so that the work on projects can be initiated or completed to avoid wastage of public money.
The committee further directed the M/o Housing and Works to submit report of inclusion or non-inclusion of the PSDP budgetary proposals in the federal budget within thirty days of the committee's recommendation required under rule 7 of rule 201 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, 2007. The committee suggested the ministry to complete the previous projects first and then start off with new ones.