Members of Peace Movement, Khyber Pakhtunkwa have expressed grave concern over delaying in disbursement of relief funds to floods affected farmers of the province and called for immediate provision of the financial assistance.
Speaking at a news conference, here at Peshawar Press Club on Tuesday, Secretary Aman Tehreek, (Peace Movement), Ijaz Durrani said that the federal and provincial governments had announced a proportion of Rs 48 billion as special relief package to flood hit growers of the province.
He said that the amount would be spent on agriculture inputs, like seeds and fertilisers, but the growers purchased it from its own finances due to delaying in disbursement of the funds authority concerned. He said that it was decided to extend financial assistance as per acre of land to growers, but yet to be passed on. He demanded of the government to immediate provide relief package to ease some sort of financial burden on flood hit farmers.
Referring the budget-2011-12, he said that the government had ignored militancy affected Khyber Pakhtunkwa, saying that there was not any specific allocation for revival of battered economy of the province. He further said that the province had expected to get 15 billion in the fiscal budget-2011-12, but it was happened.
Despite growing energy crisis in the country, he said the federal government didn't reflect any specific scheme to meet the present electricity demand, saying that the power crisis will escalate, if timely measures are not taken in this regard.
He said that there was not reflected scheme for construction of dam in northern areas of Khyber Pakhtunkwa in the budget, saying that the area was faced enormous shortage of water. He said that government had announced construction of 100 small dams in Balochistan, but no such measure was put on place for Khyber Pakhtunkwa except Gomal Zam Dam. He said the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) had remained backwards in all sectors due to prevailing militancy and insurgency in the area. He said that government had not given due share to tribal areas under National Finance Award (NFCs) and called for proportion 40 billion for Fata.
Expressing deep concern over delaying in registration of militancy hit internally displaced persons (IDPs), he demanded for proactive measures for their rehabilitation and reconstruction. He called for making public all foreign aid received on name of IDPs. Shakeel Wahidullah, Member straining committee, Aman Tehreek, Jehnisar Khalil, a representative of grower, Khalid Ayub, leader trading body, Muasam Jan, farmer and Iqbal from tribal areas also present on the occasion.