Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Monday reviewed the ongoing development portfolio of different departments at CM House and decided to de-freeze Rs208.113 billion for 4,158 ongoing and other schemes.
It may be noted that the chief minister has frozen all the development funds due to the emergency of heavy rains and floods that wreaked havoc in the province.
The meeting was attended by provincial ministers, Sharjeel Inam Memon, Syed Nasir Shah, Zia Abbas Shah, Jam Khan Shoro, Chief Secretary Sohail Rajput, Chairman P&D Hassan Naqvi, Secretary Finance Sajid Jamal Abro, Secretary to CM Rahim Shaikh, Secretary Local government Najam Shah, Secretary Works Imran Atta, Secretary Irrigation Sohail Qureshi, Member P&D Fatah Tunio and other concerned officers.
Chairman P&D briefed the chief minister and said that 4,185 schemes were going on with an allocation of Rs204.652 billion against which 119.649 billion were released, but the amount was frozen by the government. The chief minister reviewed the ongoing schemes, including 1182 schemes of Rs58.345 billion.
Another 333 schemes of Rs98.831 billion likely to be completed in the current financial years were given total funds in three installments but were frozen. 991 schemes of Rs95.969 billion were being released in four installments to be completed during the current financial year. The funds were frozen by the government.
The chief minister was told that Rs336 billion would cost the government to undertake flood rehabilitation emergency projects. They include Rs48 billion for flood control and rehabilitation of irrigation and drainage infrastructure projects, Rs22 billion for rehabilitation of major roads infrastructure, rehabilitation of water supply and drainage system, Rs9 billion for Rescue 1122 Enhancing Response for Emergency Services, Rs16. 90 billion livestock restoration project, Rs110 billion housing reconstruction project, Rs294 billion Sindh human capital investment project, and Rs24.2 billion Sindh water and agriculture transformation project subsidy on agriculture inputs.
The chief minister said that farmers have lost their entire Kharif crops. “Therefore, we have decided to provide wheat and oil seeds to the growers for which we approved Rs11 billion. The World Bank has also pledged a $100 subsidy for agriculture inputs,” he said.
The chief minister was told that stagnant flood/rainwater was being disposed of from the cities, towns, and agricultural lands located on the right and the left bank of the River Indus through pumps, and gravity where it existed. The lands would be cleared by the end of this month so that Rabi crop cultivation could be started.
