KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said on Thursday that the federal government under its Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2017-18 announced to launched 126 projects in Sindh, of which the provincial government was tasked to execute 27 projects worth Rs27.326 billion. However, the federal government has only released Rs7.385 billion that is 27 percent of the allocation. “This is the importance the federal government is giving to Sindh,” the CM said.
This he said while presiding over a preparatory meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting to be held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on February 26 in Islamabad.
The meeting was attended by Minister for Industries Manzoor Wassan, Chief Secretary Rizwan Memon, Chairman Planning &Development Mohammad Waseem, Principal Secretary to CM Sohail Rajput and others.
The agenda of the NEC included the establishment of sanctioning limits of development, review of Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2017-18 and Socio-Economic Objectives of the Five Year Plan 2018-23 prepared by the provincial government.
It was also pointed out that there were six PSDP projects worth Rs744.887 million in Sindh for which the funds have not been released so far. These schemes include roads in Hyderabad under Hyderabad Development Package of 2006, hospital and water supply schemes for Nawabshah and others.
Chairman Planning & Development (P&D) Mohammad Waseem told the chief minister that there were schemes under three categories including the construction of small dams, the lining of distributaries and rehabilitation of irrigation & drainage system. However, the federal government has only released 20 percent of the allocated amount for these projects.
Responding to this, the chief minister said that as per the release policy of the P&D and Reforms Division, 70 percent of the allocated amount should have been released until now. It shows that they are violating their own policies, he said.
The project of the lining of distributaries has been launched which is expected to cost Rs13,828.32 million against which only Rs400 million has been allocated. Similarly, schemes of revamping/rehabilitation of irrigation & drainage system of Sindh were launched for Rs16,795 million but only Rs400 million have been allocated leaving a huge throw-forward. Chief minister said that it shows that these schemes could not be completed if the allocation of such a meagre amount is made.
The chief minister recalled that revision of S-III project was cleared by Central Development Working Party in July 2017 with an increase in the cost from Rs7.982 billion to Rs36.117 billion. The project was taken to Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC) where Chairman P&D urged the federal government to share 50 percent of the cost of the revised PC-I but the federal finance secretary reluctantly agreed to provide funds to some extent at a later stage, however, they have still not been released.
A similar, attitude was shown by the federal government in sharing 1/3rd cost of Five Combined Effluent Treatment Plants project.
Chairman P&D told the chief minister that a 50:50 cost sharing of projects worth Rs1567 million was agreed between Sindh and the federal government. The Sindh government for early completion of the scheme provided the throw-forward amount of Rs392.29 million on account of federal government share which has yet to be adjusted.
On this, the chief minister remarked that he would urge the prime minister to release the allocated amount of Rs392.29 million to Sindh government for `Urban Water Supply Scheme Benazirabad’ included in PSDP 2 for the year 2017-18.
The federal government has to release remaining throw-forward amount of Rs175.944 million to Sindh government for the improvement of Roads in Hyderabad. The chief minister also prepared a case to take up with the prime minister that work on Sehwan-Jamshoro Dual Carriageway should be started at the earliest.
In the meeting, it was also pointed out that the National Highways Authority has launched Rs319 billion road sector schemes against which Sindh has been given a share of Rs5 billion. This was termed an injustice to the people of Sindh.
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