Quetta: Government of Balochistan has stated that radical and out of the box solutions are needed to solve the water scarcity crisis in Quetta city.
This was told in the post budget Press briefing held in Skinder Jamali auditorium, on Monday.
Chief Minister (CM) Balochistan was supposed to attend the briefing but he could not make it and provincial ministers and secretaries delivered the briefing in his absence.
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Mr. Anwaar ul Haq Kakar, Spokesman of Provincial Government, was the moderator of the briefing session. He said that change in the development paradigm is the vision of PML-N and its coalition partners.
Addressing the briefing, Dawood Barech, Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) Planning and Development (P&D) said that there is a shortage of 17 million gallons of water for Quetta city on daily basis.
“Small dams and Tube Well schemes can’t be used to solve the problem on permanent basis and that’s why we have gone for pumping water to Quetta from Pat-feeder canal,” said Mr. Barech.
So far only pre-feasibility of the project has been conducted and an international well reputed firm would be hired to carry out full feasibility – Dawood Barech
He told the newsmen that so far only pre-feasibility of the project has been conducted and an international well reputed firm would be hired to carry out full feasibility.
Balochistan government has initiated a Rs. 40 billion Quetta Water Supply project which is based on pumping water to Quetta city from Pat Feeder Canal. In year 2016-17, Rs. 10 billion have been earmarked for this project.
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Jaffer Khan Mandokehl, Provincial Minister for Revenue and Transport, said that funds for MPA proposed projects have been slashed because they was under criticism for a long time. “We have increased the development budget to increase efficiency of the government,” he added.
In reply to a question that how Balochistan government would meet budget deficit of Rs. 36 billion, Mr. Mandokhel said that deficit would be met by savings from budget and by taking economic measures to increase revenue.
“We expect Federal government to contribute in meeting up our budget deficit,” he said.
Secretary finance, Akbar Durrani, said that Non-development expenditure is must to complement the development activities and thus it has to be increased in every budget.
“We have increased the salaries of government employees by 10 percent and that would result in inflating the non-development budget by Rs. 12 Billion.”
A 10 percent increase in the salaries of government employees would result in inflating the non-development budget by Rs. 12 Billion – Akbar Durrani
Mr. Durrani denied the claims made by journalists that Finance Department is hiding budget data to conceal the inefficiency and corruption of the government. “We have made every possible data public and it’s available for journalists,” he claimed.
Provincial Minister for P&D Dr. Hamid Achakzai and Minister for Agriculture Aslam Bizenjo answered the questions raised about their respective departments.
Mr. Achakzai said that 3,220 new vacancies would be filled up in the next fiscal year and it would be done on merit.
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