Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Caretaker Minister for Tribal Affairs of the Merged Districts Syed Aamir Abdullah on Friday said that efforts would be made to accelerate the pace of development in all the merged tribal areas.
He said that in order to bring these districts in the mainstream, the relevant forums would be contacted for the release of funds required for the ongoing developmental projects here so that these areas could be brought at par with the rest of the province in terms of provision of basic facilities.
He expressed these views during a briefing held here at Sustainable Development Unit (SDU) of Planning and Development Department in Peshawar.
Director General SDU Inayat Waseem briefed the caretaker minister regarding the ongoing development projects and programs for the development of the merged districts which have started through provincial annual development programs, federal government projects, donor funded projects and other schemes.
The caretaker minister was informed that the merger of tribal agencies and frontier regions in the province was made to eliminate the deprivations of the tribal areas, include these backward areas in the mainstream and to resolve the public problems of these areas in fast track.
He was further informed that after conducting a comprehensive field survey, several comprehensive programs had been launched to initiate development projects in various sectors, including the Three-Years Accelerated Implementation Program (AIP), Provincial Annual Development Program (ADP) for merged districts, federal government-funded Projects, Special Forum Projects and many other development projects.
The minister was told that about 686 projects had been included for the merged districts in the Annual Development Program of the province in the financial year 2023-24, with a total cost of 583 billion rupees. Similarly, at least 29 projects have been initiated under Special Forum projects in these areas.
On this occasion, the provincial minister said that he would make every effort on his behalf in supporting the provision of funds for the development projects of merged areas so that the jury of development could run without any interruption in these areas.
