Peshawar
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Local Government and Rural Development Faisal Amin Gandapur has made clear to the authorities of his department that he is not the minister of Dera Ismail Khan but of the whole province including the merged districts.
“In order to protect the water of five major canals passing through Peshawar from pollution, my department is going to construct drains on both sides of the canals at a cost of Rs. 2.5 billion”, he maintained adding that a comprehensive plan has also been recently approved to eliminate pollution and ensure maximum greenery and tree plantation with billions of rupees in all urban and rural areas of the province that was being implemented soon.
During a briefing given to him by Secretary Local Government Shakeel Ahmed at the Local Government Secretariat Peshawar on the progress of the department’s development portfolios, the provincial minister said that he did not believe in discrimination in the development process of the government.
So he would prove the worth and usefulness of LG department all over the province and not in his constituency or any particular area, he added.
“Development schemes both in constituencies of treasury and opposition MPAs will be carried out equally which is in line with the vision and instructions of Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chief Minister Mehmood Khan”, he further clarified.
Faisal Amin Gandapur said that under the new development strategy, the Local Government Department would establish two playgrounds in each district of the province including the merged districts at a cost of Rs. 1700 million.
The project is aimed at, he said, to increase the beauty of urban areas as well as provide recreation facilities to the children and families in their localities. He directed that instead of buying land for parks, TMAs and LG officials should make sincere efforts to get plot donations for the parks by contacting local philanthropists so that the money of poor nation could be saved as much as possible.
Similarly, he said, two major projects worth Rs 2.5 billion each have also been approved for the reconstruction of rural roads and rural development and these projects. These projects will be completed in the next one year at a total cost of Rs 5 billion that will bring about a pleasant change in the rural areas, and the people there will have access to basic civic amenities like that in the cities, he maintained.
The Local Government Minister, however, expressed satisfaction that dumping grounds would be constructed wherever required for disposal of garbage in the merged districts and the rest of the province for which funds of Rs. 1 billion each have been allocated.
Similarly another plan to procure latest machinery at a cost of Rs 2500 million for drainage and solid wastes disposal on scientific lines in rest of the TMAs in the province including the merged districts was also worth mentioning, he concluded.
