National Assembly Standing Committee on Planning, Development and Reform has recommended to the Ministry of Water and Power for the inclusion of a representative of every concerned district on the board of directors of electricity distribution companies (Discos). For this purpose, the committee would write a letter to the Ministry to ensure representation of every concerned district on the board of directors of Discos.
The Committee also decided to write a letter to the Ministry to establish Transformers Repair Workshop at district level. The Committee met with Abdul Majeed Khan Khanan Khail in the chair at Parliament House on Tuesday. Chaudhry Jaffar Iqbal, Dr Nafisa Shah, Sher Akbar Khan and other attended it.
The committee also discussed the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metro Bus Project, Golan Gol Hydro Power Project (106 MW Chitral) and establishment and operation of Basic Education Community Schools. Dr Nafisa Shah said that Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metro Bus Project has become controversial because Capital Development Authority (CDA) has declined to run it. She said the government did not inform the Committee about actual cost of the project.
Afterwards, the committee sought a comprehensive report about the project in its next meeting. After a briefing by project director on Golan Gol Hydro Power Project, the Committee decided to visit the project site in May. The project director told the Committee that the revised update PC-1 costing Rs 28.2 billion, including a Rs 10 billion foreign exchange component, is being processed. He said that tentative completion date of the Project is April 2017.
Dr Nafisa Shah said that the Planning Commission did not clearly inform the House about the amount of funds released under Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP). She said the issue of fund releases for PSDP should be put on the agenda in the next meeting. While discussing the Establishment and Operation of Basic Education Community Schools (BECSs) in the country, Director General of BECS Ghulam Qadar informed the committee about total strength of students and the number of schools.
The committee members expressed their surprise when the Director General said that every teacher of the school gets a Rs 5000 salary, which has been recently approved; while Rs 2000 salary is given to each teacher in the past. He said the BECS Schools are based on a non-formal basic education system having a single teacher and single home-based room for school.
Dr Nafisa Shah said the teachers and schools should be regularised and handed over to the provinces under the 18th Constitutional Amendment. If the provinces do not accept then federal government should properly own it. The committee recommended that the salaries of the teachers should be increased. It also recommended that the officials of Planning Commission, the concerned ministry and BECSs should sit together and prepare a comprehensive draft of proposals of handing over these schools to the provincial governments or federal government. The official of National Highway Authority (NHA) also briefed the Committee regarding Karachi-Lahore Motorway Project. He said the federal government has acquired land for Sukkur-Multan section which is 352 kilometres.