PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Minerals Department has failed to spend millions of the government allocated Rs230 million for various projects till the third quarter of the current financial year (FY21).
According to details, the government had allocated Rs230 million for five projects of the department in the Annual Development Programme (ADP). The Finance Department released Rs143.633 million for these projects till the third quarter of this year but the department only spent Rs120.650 m.
Finance Department documents show that the provincial government has not released any funds for the construction of Model Coal Mine in Nowshera district for which Rs32 m were allocated. Similarly, only Rs2 m has been spent out of Rs12.120 m for the development of the mines and mineral sector of the province, while Rs49.854 m has been spent out of Rs70m released for the establishment of mine monitoring units in mineral rich areas.
Further, for the establishment of a Mining Cadastre System (MCS), only Rs68.337 m has been spent out of Rs95.217 m, while out of the Rs20.663 m allocated for the geological mapping project of minerals, only Rs2.5m was spent.
According to sources, despite the large mineral reserves in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, no projects to increase the province’s reserves by utilising minerals have been included in the budget.
Sources added that a few projects included in the development programme were delayed due to non-provision of funds by the KP Finance Department.
