CM chairs high level meeting on developmental projects in Peshawar region

PESHAWAR: A high level meeting regarding developmental projects being executed in Peshawar region was held here on Thursday with the Chief Minister Mahmood Khan in the chair.

The meeting reviewed progress made so far on various developmental projects of health, education, communication, public health engineering, local government, power, gas and other sectors.

Issues faced by the general public in all the districts of the region including Peshawar, Charsadda, Mardan, Swabi, Nowshera, Khyber and Mohmand were also discussed in the meeting and the chief minister directed the authorities concerned to take concrete steps to resolve them as early as possible.

Besides, provincial cabinet members Taimur Saleem Jhagara, Ishtiaq Urmar, Shahram Tarakai, Kamran Bangash, Kahleeq ur Rehman, Sultan Khan, Arif Ahmad Zai and Abdul Karim, Member of provincial assembly from Peshawar Region and administrative secretaries of concerned departments attended the meeting.

The meeting was briefed in details about the developmental schemes reflected in Annual Development Program for the above mentioned districts whereas elected representatives of the districts appraised the forum about important issues being faced by the people and their respective constituencies.

The chief minister directed the quarter concerned for necessary steps to resolve the issues on priority basis and said that he would chair a meeting every month to review the progress on developmental projects and issues of all the regions separately.

He directed to ensure implementation of all the directives and decisions taken in the previous meetings and submit him a report to this effect.

He also directed the Ministers and administrative secretaries of all the departments to convene a meeting of their departments on monthly basis in order to ensure significant progress on developmental schemes and resolution of the public issues identified by the elected representatives.

The chief minister on the occasion directed the Elementary & Secondary Education Department to sit together with the concerned elected representatives and devise a strategy to immediately shift the government schools with dilapidated buildings in Peshawar and its vicinities and prepare PC-1s for the reconstruction of such schools.

He also directed the Higher Education Department to complete feasibility study for establishment of Degree Colleges in the province adding that work on feasible colleges should also be started without any delay.

Regarding expansion and upgradation of Naseerullah Babar Hospital Peshawar, the Chief Minister instructed concerned authorities to do home work for shifting the land of Food department adjacent to health department and shift the food department infrastructure to another suitable place.

He also directed the Public Health Engineering, WSSCP and other authorities concerned to sit together and take steps to ensure functionalization of non functional tube wells in all districts of Peshawar region.

The chief minister also directed the SNGPL to take steps to resolve the issue of gas low pressure in some of the areas of provincial capital adding that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is gas producing province and as such no compromise would be made on the uninterrupted supply of gas to the consumers of the province.

The SNGPL authorities informed the forum that the issue of low pressure and load-shedding of gas in Peshawar city and cantonment area was resolved whereas work on other areas was in progress.

It was further informed that in order to overcome the gas low pressure issue in Peshawar and its surrounding areas, work on 16 different projects was also in progress.

The chief minister underlined the need to have Traffic Management Plan for all time solution of traffic issues in Peshawar and directed that a meeting of concerned departments including traffic police be convened next week.

Mahmood Khan also directed the concerned quarters to launch crackdown against illegal private housing schemes being established on agricultural lands in the province further directing the authorities to devise a mechanism to regularize such housing schemes already established.