SINDH Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Wednesday presented a comprehensive 171-page report highlighting key initiatives and achievements of his Government during the last one year in different sectors including healthcare, education, IT, water management, agriculture and governance reforms, including the implementation of e-systems.
He stated on the occasion that the provincial government has achieved remarkable progress over the past year through digital transformation, infrastructure development and agricultural advancements.
Apart from recounting what was achieved in the first year of the Government, the Chief Minister also resolved that in line with the commitment of the PPP leadership, more plans will be unfolded in future for betterment of the people.
It is a welcome tradition that instead of banking upon political rhetoric, the federal and provincial governments are presenting their performance during the first year in office before the people summing up not only their achievements but also giving an opportunity to the nation to analyze them and give input for further improvement in future.
The PPP can surely take credit of being a pro-people party and its leadership (President Asif Ali Zardari and Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari) have all along been championing the cause of the down-trodden segments of the society.
This is also evident from their contribution in the coalition set up where the PPP opposes all policies and plans that, in any way, cause harm to the general public.
Information Technology is now considered as the backbone of the economy and with this in view, it is encouraging that the Sindh Government launched a number of initiatives to promote this sector in the province and empower the youth.
Under the Peoples Information Technology Programme, thousands of scholarships have been awarded for IT training enabling students to get good jobs or become self-employed.
The provincial government has also launched a major IT training initiative, training 3,000 university students and 200 teachers in Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana, Khairpur and Shaheed Benazirabad.
In another digital leap, a drone-based rural infrastructure mapping project is under way to identify underdeveloped areas and plan future projects.
Online services have been introduced to facilitate people, promote good governance and prevent misuse of powers.
These include an online vehicle tax system, enabling motor vehicle tax payments, biometric verifications and digital vehicle registrations and transfers.
Police records have also been fully digitized, streamlining operations such as license issuance and criminal database management and success of the initiative can be judged by the fact that over one hundred thousand driving licenses were issued during the last three months.
Healthcare is another area where Sindh has excelled as evident from global recognition that services provided by the province’s pediatric emergency facilities now match or surpass private hospitals in quality.
Significant initiatives in the sector include establishment of robotic centres, a linear accelerator for cancer treatment and procurement of latest diagnostic and treatment equipment for popular health facilities.
Efforts to modernize the agriculture sector include the distribution of 219 tube wells and 434 agricultural tools to farmers.
Additionally, 100 solar-powered tube wells and a solarized cold storage unit have been installed.
Special attention has also been paid for modernization of the provincial police, its proper training and digitization of its operations.
Infrastructure development has been a key focus, with the government completing 196 new roads and repairing 120 flood-damaged roads, covering a total of 2,500km.
Projects such as Hyderabad-Mirpurkhas Road, Sanghar-Umerkot Road and Tharparkar-Alibandar Road have been completed with a total investment of Rs53.5 billion.
Under the vision of party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the Sindh government has launched an initiative to solarize schools, hospitals and public buildings across Sindh.
The issuance of Hari Cards empowered farmers with access to subsidized machinery, water conservation technologies, interest-free loans and disaster relief, resulting in Rs10.
11 billion disbursed to over 168,000 farmers post-2022 floods.
All this shows the provinces are in healthy competition to satisfy their electorates and this trend will, hopefully, align performance of the provincial governments with the aspirations of the people.
