Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Information and Higher Education Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani has said that Rs 42 billion have been allocated in the Budget 2015-16 for local bodies' government, due to which the leaders of tripartite alliance in KP have become more active against local government system.
Addressing as chief guest at the award distribution ceremony of the Sports Writers Association here, he said members of tripartite alliance were status conscious against the devolution of power at lower level. The Minister said leaders of tripartite alliance were not against the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf rather they were against the people-friendly policies of PTI in the province, because they did not deliver to masses during their term.
Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani said the KP government had drafted such local bodies system that would resolve the issue of the masses at their doorstep, saying the provincial government was moving ahead in right direction and all the decisions were being taken fairly and on merit, he added. The Minister said the provincial government had presented an unprecedented welfare budget for the fiscal year 2015-16 and increased its volume as compared to last few years' budgets by allocating most of the funds for welfare projects, he maintained.
The Minister said volume of the Annual Development Programme (ADP) had been enhanced to Rs 170 billion and a considerable relief had also been ensured for the welfare of government servants and pensioners in the budget, adding the upgradation of low scale government employees and 10 percent increase in salaries and allowances would put an extra burden of Rs 20 billion on the government exchequer, despite that KP government provided relief to masses too.
Later, the Minister distributed awards among the selected best sports players from all over the province. He also lauded the efforts of the Sports Writers Association and announced an amount of Rs 300,000 financial assistance for the Association, he concluded.