F.P. Report
PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervez Khattak has said that providing improved and efficient municipal facilities to the people was among top priorities of PTI Government.
He was talking to the participants of the MoU signing ceremony between Swiss donor agency (SDC) and provincial local government department. Besides, Country Director SDC Stephanie Burri, Senior Minister for Local Government Inayatullah, Minister Education Mohammad Atif Khan, District Nazim Arbab Mohammad Asim, Secretary Local Government Syed Jamal-ud-Din Shah, CEO WSSP Peshawar Engineer Khanzeb, CEO WSSP Mardan Nasir Ghafoor Khan, Chairman MCB Shaukat Ali, members Haji Mohammad Javed, Dr. Iqbal Khalil, Dr. Khurshid and other local government representatives were also present on the occasion.
Under agreement a grant of Rs. 320 million would be given to both the municipal bodies wherein the share of WSSP Peshawar is Rs. 170 million whereas WSSP Mardan would receive Rs. 150 million. The grant would be utilized for town planning based on 30 years future municipal needs of both the cities, awareness campaigns for involvement of local community in municipal services and ownership, computerization of the companies and capacity building of the municipal staff and LG representatives.
He said financial and technical support of the friendly countries would highly be appreciable and welcoming support to the end desire of efficient municipal services in the province. He thanked the government of Switzerland and its donor agency SDC for extending valuable financial support to strengthen the services of the Water Supply and Sanitation Company of Peshawar and Mardan.
He said that this was the first example of right kind of foreign assistance being extended to our province directly. “It’s acknowledgment of international community recognizing the performance of the KP Government and its newly established entity WSSP”, he added.
Pervez Khattak on this occasion directed for constituting steering committee under the chairmanship of Secretary local government to ensure transparent and judicious use of the grant for the set targets.
He said that municipal services especially drinking water and sanitation directly linked with human health. That was why the present provincial government was focusing full attention on water and sanitation sectors under its agenda of change. He said that water and sanitation program was initially established in Peshawar but later extended to all divisional headquarters in the province under independent and autonomous boards to end the overlapping of services of seven similar bodies and its results were also satisfactory.
The Chief Minister asked both the companies to ensure achievement of the set goals focusing more on the goals of serving the public up to their satisfaction. He also called upon the municipal employees and local government representatives to work round the clock for making their cities clean and people healthy.
