ISLAMABAD The Youth Affairs Ministry has so far failed to establish the 100 Youth Activity Centres, in the less developed areas of the country, that have been in prospect since the past two years. The cost in developing these centres is estimated to be Rs 185 million. The establishment of the 100 YACs was a first project of its kind, as the fundamental intention of the program was to provide constructive skills, along with healthy environment, to the marginalized youngsters, who belonged to the distant districts of the country. It was continuously learnt from the officials of the Youth Ministry that they had submitted the PC-1 of the project of Youth Activity Centres to the Planning Commission, with an objective to offer better services to enhance the creative capabilities of the marginalized youngsters of the less developed areas. Under this project, two centres would be established in each district and would be run by the locals. These centres would provide facilities for social, cultural and recreational activities to the youth along with professional training. Each centre would have a library, computers with Internet, newspapers and indoor games. The Ministry would not construct many new buildings for these centres, in order to reduce the cost of the project. These centres would be set up in government buildings in the area. These centres would be run with the public-private partnership. The concerned officials said that in this regard they had approached locals and NGOs to provide buildings for these Youth Centres. However, despite these official announcements regarding the establishment of these centres shortly, so far nothing has been done. Official sources within the authority, requesting not to be named, have informed that there are no serious efforts for establishing these centres and the ministry has not even completed the ten percent of the work. It is to be mentioned that Youth Centres have been established at Gwadar, Gilgit, Karachi and Sukkur, while the government plans on establishing a 100 more throughout the country. About the centres that have been set up, official sources from within the Ministry told that those centres are not being run efficiently and there are no activities taking place in those centres.