Muzaffarabad: (Parliament Times) The Azad Jammu and Kashmir Cabinet’s Development Committee in its meeting held in Muzaffarabad on Tuesday approved 16 projects costing over four billion rupees.
The meeting chaired by the Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan was attended by Ch. Tariq Farooq, Dr. Najeeb Naqi, Sardar Mir Akbar, Mushtaq Minhas, Ch. Muhammad Aziz and others whereas chief secretary Dr. Ejaz Mounir, secretaries and heads of the relevant departments were present on the occasion. The schemes approved by the Committee were related to communication, health, education, wildlife and fisheries, agriculture and sanitation sectors.
Speaking on the occasion, Raja Farooq Haider stressed the need for transparent utilization of the government resources. He said all schemes should be completed in stipulated time keeping in view the quality and standard of work. The AJK Prime Minister said no compromise would be made on the transparency of the public welfare projects.
The cabinet committee approved 16 different development projects worth 4111.878 million rupees including physical planning, housing, health, tourism, IT, disaster management authority, social welfare and women development, agriculture and livestock, works and communication.
The Cabinet committee approved 217.810 million for wild life and fisheries department, 233.823 million rupees for Education, 246.211 million rupees for Agriculture, 119.860 million rupees for Mirpur development authority (MDA); whereas the committee approved 12 other projects of public works department worth 3294.174 million rupees. The committee, however, has deferred the proposed plan of building a commercial plaza at Rawalakot worth 131.673 million rupees. During the meeting the committee also approved 226.366 million for public works department and communication and other development schemes. Under these schemes the government would spend a huge chunk of money for the improvement of road networks in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).
Lots of funds have also been allocated for expanding roads and building bridges in different areas of AJK to provide better communication facilities to the people.
It is worth to mention here that The AJK Works and Communication department is one of the main administration divisions of the State of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, which receives billions of rupees as annual development budget to construct roads and bridges in the region.
