The Senate’s Functional Committee on problems of less developed areas, on Wednesday, showed concern on the progress of Universal Support Fund (USF) development projects in Balochistan and requested complete details of them in the next meeting.
The committee expressed its dissatisfaction about the briefing on USF programmes. A USF representative informed the committee that four programmes were in operation under the fund. Balochistan was their top most priority however security issues had created hurdles in their work.
The committee members asked USF to take appropriate steps to combat challenges faced by them.
The committee also requested representatives of the Provincial Disaster Management Authorities (PDMAs) to provide updates of relief work in flood hit areas, in the next meeting. Senator Khalida Parveen, quoting figures of PDMA Balochistan, said that relief provided by the authority was insufficient compared to the demand of the people affected by the calamity.
An NDMA officer informed the body that the prime minister had initially announced Rs 710 million to provide food items to affected people in Sindh but when the flood hit Balochistan and Punjab, ration packs were distributed among the affectees there too.
She said that an additional amount of Rs 2.6 bn had been announced recently for Balochistan, including Rs 2 billion for the reconstruction of infrastructure and Rs 600 million for relief work. The committee was told that Rs 20 mn was required to make Cadet College Noshki functional. 75 percent work on the college building had already been completed, while the remaining work would be completed soon.
