Seven hundred and twenty four development schemes have been proposed to be deleted in the Sindh’s Annual Development Program (ADP) 2011-12. A cabinet committee including the provincial law, food and women development ministers and the adviser to the chief minister on planning and development has been constituted to examine and formulate the policy guidance for ADP 2011-12 and submit recommendations to the chief minister.
In this context, the committee was provided with necessary guidance for the ADP 2011-12, and the deletion of the 724 schemes was suggested in this necessary guidance, while there are other schemes to be deleted that remained unapproved for two consecutive years i.e. 2009-10 and 2010-11. In the note to the chief minister for this purpose, it is written that the current provincial ADP throw forward stands at Rs 290.439 billion and assuming the ADP actual release each year – Rs 60 billion – it will take five years for the existing throw forward to be reduced to zero, provided no new schemes are included during these years.
Furthermore, the non-ADP schemes amounting Rs 328.932 billion have also been taken on board, in which the share of Provincial Development Working Party (PDWP) is 42 schemes under the directives of president and chief minister amounting Rs 17.65 billion. The non-ADP flood-affected people’s rehabilitation schemes include six schemes for river and canal structures development costing Rs 53.871 billion and one umbrella scheme for development of roads is worth Rs 14.278 billion.
Similarly, there are 10 non-ADP schemes approved by the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) for possible funding by the Sindh government with a cost of Rs 187.146 billion. Under the devolution process, some programmes transferred to Sindh include 119 Sindh-specific schemes costing Rs 13.544 billion and 32 schemes of vertical programmes worth Rs 19.591 billion.
The Rs 22.852 billion for the Higher Education Commission (HEC) also falls under the non-ADP schemes that include Rs 7.852 billion for 44 Sindh schemes and Rs 15 billion for recruiting expenditures.
The amount meant for 891 HEC scholarship schemes is unknown. The guidance requires the committee to delete 491 schemes that were provided 100 percent funding in 2010-11 and are expected to have been completed.
It suggested 100 percent allocation of funding for 204 schemes where only 25 percent funding is required for the completion of the projects. The total allocation for these schemes will amount to Rs 6.726 billion. It is pertinent to mention that the size of ADP for 2011-12 will be determined after the intimation of the availability of the funding by the Finance Department.
