PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on Wednesday said his government was committed to social and economic development at the grassroots level in the province. “The devolution process that the provincial government has initiated will bring development closer to the people and will also develop a sense of ownership and ensure accountability at all levels,” the chief minister told a conference here. The conference on community-driven development was organised by the European Union, Rural Support Network (RSPN) and Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP) at a hotel here. The chief minister paid rich tributes to the contribution by RSPN Chairman Shoaib Sultan Khan and SRSP to the cause of marginalised communities in the province. This was the third of the series with the previous two organised by the governments of Balochistan and Sindh. The chief minister appreciated the European Union for building their projects on local ideas and local institutions. “This would ensure ownership and sustainability of the programmes,” he said, adding, the government’s plan to devolve power to the local government fitted perfectly with the ideas of community-driven and area development that EU was espousing. Senior Minister for Local Government Inayatullah Khan and Ministers for Finance, Social Welfare Muzaffar Said also spoke on the occasion. Chief Secretary Amjad Ali Khan made the closing remarks. EU Ambassador Jean Francois Cautain, addressing the morning session, said that the conference offered an opportunity to revive his ties with Peshawar where he had served in the nineties. He said the EU was committed to supporting Pakistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to overcome its development problems and would continue supporting the government for programmes that made impact on lives of disadvantaged people and were implemented transparently. RSPN Chairman Shoaib Sultan Khan said though the international donors could contribute to the process of socioeconomic development, it was the government that had the primary duty and resources to make poverty an important plank of national policy. He said that reaching out to the poor segments of the population was the need of the hour in the province. The conference was organised to review the work being funded by the European Union under the Programme for Economic Advancement and Community Empowerment (PEACE) and Community Driven Local Development (CDLD) Programmes in Malakand Division. Earlier, SRSP Chief Executive Officer Masoodul Mulk explained that under the PEACE Project 62 percent of the funding was utilised for generation of community run micro-hydro power units in the project areas. He said that on the initiative of the provincial government, PEDO had handed over six dysfunctional units to the SRSP. “The one at Kalam was revived and its production doubled to 400 KW within six months while another at Ashuran Kalam would soon be producing 1.2 megawatts of electricity making Kalam to be the first valley with surplus electricity in the province. Similar units would come into production by mid-year 2016 in Dir, Shangla and Chitral. So far, 99 micro hydro units have been initiated/ completed generating 15.9 Megawatts of electricity,” he explained. He said the electricity was supporting cottage industry, hospitals, basic health units, local enterprises, hotels and tourism besides lighting homes. Masoodul Mulk explained that the SRSP was helping communities rebuild roads, drinking water, irrigation channels and reviving government facilities. Citing an example, he said that 53 wells constructed around Chitral supplied with drinking water during floods to 10,600 households on daily basis during the recent floods. District Nazim of Swat Muhammad Ali Shah, of Chitral Maghfirat Shah and that of Upper Dir Sahibzada Fasihullah reiterated the need to involve the district government actively in the CDLD Project. Interesting presentations were also made on experience of poverty programmes in KP by Ejaz Rizvi, Dr Tayyab from Cambridge University spoke on Smart Village initiative, Dr Fawad Khan from ISET Pakistan on Biogas and Alternate Energy Solution, and Technical team of European Union also spoke on the occasion. Local communities from Kohat and Haripur also presented own work to emphasis linkages, governance and socio-economic development at local level in the conference.
