PESHAWAR, Dec 24 (APP): Provincial Caretaker Minister for Newly Merged Districts Affairs, Industries, Commerce and Technical Education, Dr. Aamer Abdullah presided over a meeting on Sunday to review the developmental projects under provincial government and World Bank (WB) collaborative program, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Rural Investment and Institutional Support Program (KP-RIISP).
Besides Secretary Industries Department Syed Zulfaqar Ali Shah, Special Secretary Home and Tribal Affairs Department, Muhammad Zubair, officers of Agriculture, Irrigation, Communications and Works, Planning and Development and Local Govt.& Rural Development Departments, project officials and representatives of the World Bank attended the meeting.
In the meeting, the provincial minister was given a detailed briefing regarding the overall outline of the program launched for the development of rural facilities, institutional infrastructure and other sectoral projects in NMDs.
The caretaker minister was informed that the said program is a mega project spanning 8 years from 2023 to 2031, which will benefit about five million people of 8 merged districts of tribal areas and 6 frontier regions.
He was further informed that the cost of this project of mutual cooperation of the provincial government and the World Bank includes the share of eleven million dollars (thirty-one billion rupees) of the provincial government and thirty million dollars (eighty-five billion rupees) of the World Bank.
Speaking on the occasion, the caretaker minister said that under (RIISP) Program, transparency should be maintained in all respects in the provision of relevant machinery for the development of the agricultural sector in the tribal areas so that the deserving people can benefit from this facility.
He said that full bio-data and verification, NADRA data, personal contact number and other necessary details should available regarding the beneficiaries of same facility of the project.
The provincial minister directed to provide the said details to minister’s office as well.
He said that the data of the already conducted comprehensive research survey report should be used instead of re-survey for getting information of rural based basic needs under the program, in which detailed data related to all the areas of the merged districts have been collected.
The caretaker minister further said that the responsibilities required with regard to monitoring and development in the districts regarding the development project should be obtained from the existing relevant M&D staff in these districts.
He urged to run the project through a special project management tool while directed to provide PC1 of newly proposed small dams included in the project under the Irrigation Department.
