Research and Training Wing of Planning and Development Department, Sindh has failed to produce even a single research or development report during last two years to initiate new projects in the province.
Highly placed sources in Sindh Planning and Development (P&D) department told Business Recorder on Thursday that Research and Training (R&T) Wing, which ought to provide training to P&D officials, had also not initiated training programme for department officials.
It may be pointed out that R&T Wing was established in 2003-04 after abolishing Sindh Regional Plan Organisation for the purpose of developing research and development studies for the province.
The sources said that Sindh Regional Plan Organisation (SRPO) was established in 1975 with the approval of the government. "SRPO was consisted of six sections, which include economy section, agriculture section, human resource section, industrial section, health section and mapping section."
"SRPO had done excellent job as it attracted the international organisation like United Nations to provide funds for the development projects in Sindh by producing different reports," they said and added that it also prepared regional documents envisaging the future projects for the province.
In 2003-04 Sindh Regional Plan Organisation was reorganised as Research and Training Wing while about 150 employees working in SRPO were sent to other provincial departments.
At present, employees at R&T Wing are very few which is apparently main cause of failure of the wing in producing latest reports for undertaking new projects in the fields of economy, health, agriculture and industries.
The sources said that a huge amount of funds allocated every year for the E&T Wing but they were not being used on research and training purposes. They said higher officials of the wing were also non-technical person and had no experience in research and training fields.
While expressing disappointment over lack of management to provide training to the department officials, they said that research studies in Planning and Development (P&D) department were mostly being carried out through the consultants. Earlier, P&D department produced its own research reports, they mentioned.
However, officials of R&T Wing, when contacted, told Business Recorder that the wing was working on several studies' reports to devise future line of action for the province.