ISLAMABAD - While showing displeasure over the allocation of funds, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Minister Muzaffar has said that none of the 12 projects presented by the province was included in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2017-18.
“Only Punjab was happy with the PSDP allocation while the rest of three provinces were unhappy,” he said while talking to journalists after the Annual Planning Coordination Committee (APCC) meeting held here on Wednesday. “I am not here for fighting other provinces cases however I will say that none of the province was satisfied with the PSDP allocations except Punjab,” he added.
“Is it justified that the province has sent 12 projects but none was included in the PSDP 2-17-18,” he questioned. He said that the province has demanded Rs119 billion for Chashma Right Bank Canal (CRBC) but the government allocated only Rs130 million for the project, which is total injustice. “How one can allocate such a token amount for important and huge project,” he said. The CRBC, a lift-cum-gravity project, will provide perennial irrigation discharge of 73.98 cusecs (cubic meter per second) to irrigate 115,846 hectares of land in District Dera Ismail Khan.
Similarly, for the project related to Warsak dam and other projects only token allocatation was made, he maintained. Majority of the resources are being diverted to Punjab while KP is meted out with step-motherly treatment, he alleged.
Even in the last year PSDP, the province has proposed 42 projects but only two were included in the PSDP, he said. Regarding the release of funds to KP in fiscal 2016-17, he said that only 30 percent budget was released to the province. The Federal government is not paying the province’s due right in Net Hydle Profit (NHP) share and using delaying tactics in the finalisation of National Finance Commission (NFC) award. He said that it is the clear violation of the constitution that the government is delaying the NFC award.