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Naya KPK | News & Updates on the development in KPK.

Awesome now ensure their protection from vandalism, educate people about renewable energy.

Renewable energy is the way forward.
 
عید کی چھٹیوں میں ملک بھر سے سیاحوں کی بڑی تعداد خیبرپختونخوا کا رخ۔ صوبے کے پُرفضا مقامات میں 25 لاکھ افراد نے بسیرا کیا۔ 4 دنوں میں 15 لاکھ سیاحوں نے گلیات٬ ناران٬ کاغان کا دورہ کیا۔ خیبرپختونخوا حکومت نے سیاحوں کی آمد پر بھرپور اقدامات اُٹھائے اور اُن کو Facilitate کیا۔

 
The Newly established Traffic Warden Police Abbottabad equipped with the state-of-the-art heavy bikes and body mounted cameras those would monitor the activities of traffic officials. Abbottabad Police committed to modernize the police force and pen cameras are a part of the strategy, while the cameras are capable of recording audio and video.

The traffic wardens of #Abbottabad are also equipped with state of the art heavy bikes to cope with the traffic issues in the district Abbottabad. Traffic wardens would use the cameras while imposing fine on vehicle, including stopping and issuing a fine ticket to the driver. The cameras would capture the moments of proceedings in real time which would be monitored every day. It was disclosed that after checking the recording of the cameras on daily basis disciplinary action would also be taken if any traffic warden found guilty.

 
Education reforms by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Government

THE Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has embarked upon revolutionary education reforms in the province that is destined to go long way in not only enhancing the literacy rate but would also ensure modern education to every knowledge seeker hence attracting every parent to send their kids to the school.
They include:-

Uniform Education System

In order to introduce a uniform system of education, The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Elementary & Secondary Education Department (ESED) is revising textbooks. So far textbooks up to class five have been revised. New books are easier to understand and are structured in manner, which will help students in concepts instead of root learning. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Elementary & Secondary Education Department conducted uniform and universal examination for class five in all public and private schools. The purpose of these examinations was to improve quality of education in KP since these assessments provided information about shortcomings which is helping planners to address service delivery in effective manners. To achieve this purpose the ESED is following a phased approach. As a first step, universal students’ assessments were conducted in 2017. The department has assigned the conduct of these assessments to the Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE).

Schools Completed

During last three years, The Department of Elementary & Secondary Education (ESED) has successfully established and completed about 450 new schools in KP. All of these schools are fully resourced and functioning according to the data available at ESED. About 229 schools have been sanctioned while 221 are in process.

Budget

The ESED’s budget continued upward shift and kept increasing since 2013. In 2013- 14 the total budget was 64 Billion, which then increased to 88 Billion in 2014-15, 99.4 Billion in 2015-16, 118.7 Billion in 2016-17 and 136.194 Billion this year (2017- 18). The ESED’s Budget has increased by 14.51% as compared to FY2016-17 while overall increase in Education budget has been 113.84% over the last 5 years.

Enrolment

The enrolment of students in government schools increased over the last three years with 4.17 million students in 2014-15, 4.219 million in 2015-16 and 4.274 million in 2016-17. Reforms in education system improved parents confidence as a result more than 34,000 students migrated from private to government schools in 2016, while this year a record migration of 151,000 students have been observed in government schools.

Some of the Key Achievements of ESED:

Provision of basic and missing facilities has been one of ESED priorities. During last three years, ESED has constructed more than 10,000 additional classrooms, more than 14,400 boundary walls, more than 17,350 Group Latrines in addition to the completion of more than 10550 Schools electrification projects. More than 13600 schools were provided clean drinking water. In total the Department Spent Rs. 21 Billion on the missing facilities.

These initiatives have improved both teachers and parent’s confidence on ESED reforms and as a result students’ enrollment increased and students drop-out significantly decreased. To ensure transparency, accountability and merit – ESED in last three years hired about 40,000 teachers through an independent testing process of NTS.

More than 83,000 teachers will be trained though British Council on using English as medium of instruction. Additionally, more than 45,000 teachers are receiving training on phonics, which will help in improving teachers and students’ English pronunciation skills. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the only province that has allocated budget for its Education Sector Plan in-line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of United Nation on education and is achieving the budgetary target allocations in time.

To encourage girl’s education and to maximize enrollment of girls, we have built 1413 new girls’ community schools in which more than 70,000 students are enrolled. More than 30,000 education vouchers were distributed among the students of total 500 million rupees. Additionally ESED built 1350 IT Labs in schools to reduce the gap between private and publicschools. Around 1100 Schools were also provided Interactive White Boards to advance students learning skills. To ensure enrollment and schooling of poor students, ESED started vouchers scheme, which has so far reached to 13,000 poor students.

Under this program, poor students are enrolled in their nearest private schools. The first Government Girls Cadet College has been established in Mardan with an allocation of Rs. 3 Billion. To encourage students in extra-curricular activities ESED established 5000 play areas and more than 140 sports grounds in schools. The establishment of an Independent Monitoring Unit (IMU) has helped in reduction of teacher’s absenteeism by up to 10%. We have introduced a teachers’ incentive program to recognize the performance of teachers.

Under this scheme, more than 1900 best performing teachers received prizes of 100,000 and 50,000 cash in 2016 while more than 900 teachers received incentives in 2015. The establishment of Independent Monitoring Unit in 2013 has helped in overcoming Teachers absenteeism by up to 15%, more than 8000 actions were taken against absent teachers while Rs. 190 million have been recovered in salaries.

The ESED has introduced compulsory Quranic Education in Schools from Class One to intermediate class. The ESED has allocated Rs. 4 billion to provide furniture to schools, which will benefit more than 1.4 million students and teachers. The ESED has completed more than 50 six-class rooms’ schools while another 350 are in progress. To encourage healthy habits among the students, 5000 sports kits were provided to students and more than 7500 play areas and 198 sports grounds have been completed.

As the load shedding just like other social sectors has badly affected education system but ESED is making sure to convert our schools to solar energy. To ensure uninterrupted supply of the electricity during school times, more than 5500 schools have been converted to solar electricity while another 8000 are expected to be completed in the next year. In order to improve transparency and accountability, Biometric system has been installed in 76 offices and 480 schools. To improve creative skills in students, ESED distributed more than 5.1 million drawing books in students all over KP.

The ESED has started prizes to the top position holders of Government Schools. Under this scheme, the government will give Rs One Million, Rs. 500,000, Rs. 300,000 prizes to those students of government schools who will get 1st, 2nd and 3rd position in their board examrespectively. One such example is available from 2016 when a Physically-challenged Faisal Malik, who was stricken by polio during the early years of his life and still uses crutches to walk, clinched the top position in the intermediate examinations in Abbottabad district in KP. Faisal came out on top from a pool of over 58,000 students. Malik Faisal bagged the first position with 810 marks and was awarded 500,000 by the Chief Minister of KP Pervez Khattak.
 
24 lakh families given Health Cards in KPK: Imran

PESHAWAR, Pakistan: The Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan has said that as many as 24 lakh families have been given Health Cards in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and an handsome amount of Rs 700 million have been spent on the scheme during last six months.

While addressing a press conference at Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar on Thursday, Imran Khan said that increase of provincial health budget from Rs 18 billion to Rs 65 billion reflects our commitment to revolutionize health system by introducing new health reforms.

The PTI Chief said that our activities are aimed to increase the standard of government hospitals to health facilities run by private sector. He said that our government has the credit to introduce reforms in provincial health that were ignored by previous governments.

Imran Khan said that strength of doctors in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been increased from 3,000 to 6500 and 95 percent seats of doctors in rural health centers and district hospitals have been filled. He said that doctors are far better paid in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as compared to other provinces.

Imran said that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has also decided to install solar power generating units in RHCs and district hospitals of the province to improve health delivery system as government often faced opposition in form of litigation when it wanted to introduce reforms.

In addition, the PTI Chief said that when system in the hospitals would be improved, foreign qualified doctors would prefer to serve in their Country.

The PTI Chief said that 27 doctors from outside the Country have applied to serve in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
 
The children of Zamung Kor

Zamung Kor provides young children who previously worked as garbage collectors, beggars or labourers, access to free schooling, food, lodging and counselling services.

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PESHAWAR: Last year, 10-year-old Shoaib was collecting scraps from garbage cans in Peshawar to sell for a few bucks. Today, his dirty clothes have been replaced. His matted hair washed and his gunnysack swapped for a school bag. He now sits in a corridor of Zamung Kor in Peshawar cheerfully chatting away with his classmates.

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Shoaib was brought to Zamung Kor by his grandfather. “My family always wanted me to get a proper education, but they could not afford one,” he tells Geo.TV, “This place is now my new home.”



The 10-year-old’s story is not unique. There are over 128 children in the government-run Zamung Kor, with similar stories. These boys worked as garbage collectors, beggars or labourers until state authorities rescued them.

Zamung Kor was inaugurated in November 2015 by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government. It is the first-of-its-kind live-in shelter and rehabilitation centre in the country for street children and orphans.

At the facility, young children have access to free schooling, food, lodging and counselling services. Bankrolled by the provincial government, Rs430 million have been earmarked for the project of which Rs157 million have been released thus far.





Students attending classes at Zamung Kor


Students and faculty at Zamung Kor


Students attending classes at Zamung Kor


Students attending classes at Zamung Kor


Students attending classes at Zamung Kor



Students and faculty at Zamung Kor





In the coming years, the educational facility will be expanded to include a sports ground, an auditorium and a cricket academy.



“We are not running an orphanage,” says Maj (retd) Haris Khan Khattak, the director of Zamung Kor, “Once rehabilitated, these children will be reintegrated into the society as valuable and contributing citizens.”



When the facility first opened its doors, it had only 15 children, all boys, although it can house up to 1,000. Khattak says identifying and bringing children to the institute is trickier than they initially thought. They need a larger staff and more vehicles. Yet, he is hopeful that the numbers will go up in the next three years.



There are an estimated 3.3 million child labourers in the country, in the age group of 5-9 and 10-14 years. Out of these, one million are in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to the Child Labour Survey of 1996. No updated figure is available.

In order to get an accurate picture, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf-led government has set aside Rs40 million from the 2017-2018 budget for a new survey.



“We need more such initiatives, especially one for girls, to deal with child labour in the country,” explains Khattak, adding that “We have had children who were exposed to radicalisation. Then there were those who were abused on a daily basis and were addicted to drugs. These children are showing remarkable progress today.”



Most of those in the institute are orphans. Others are categorised as children at risk, vulnerable children, children without parental care, children of the street and children on the streets. They are brought to Zamung Kor after Child Protection Units refer them here.





Students enjoying a game of carrom at Zamung Kor


Students at Zamung Kor enjoying a break


Packing away their things


Students catching up in the dormitory


Students enjoying a game of carrom at Zamung Kor



Students at Zamung Kor enjoying a break





The provincial government’s effort has been largely applauded across the board, yet there are still some reservations.

“There are only 11 Child Protection Units in the province,” says Imran Takkar, a child rights activist, “and most are in terrible conditions while some have had their donor funding withdrawn.”

The focus, he says, should also be on establishing and strengthen such units in the 26 districts of the province. “Helping children off the streets is our responsibility, but so is finding out why they ended up there in the first place.”
 
Rs 500m projects initiated to beautify Timergara

TIMERGARA: Tehsil Nazim Riaz Mohammad on Friday said several projects had been launched under the Timergara city uplift and beautification plan, for which, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had allocated Rs500 million.

Briefing journalists here, he said footpaths had been constructed on both sides of the river from Balambat Bridge to the main city, while work on reconstruction of the Timergara Rest House Road was in final stage.

He said the construction of a waiting room for women with all basic facilities, washrooms and installation of water filtration plant at the Timergara bus stand were part of the city’s beautification plan. He said all available resource were being utilised to make the city clean and green, and for the purpose, three main squares -- Gorgory, Timergara and Shaheed Chowk -- were being rebuilt.

A traffic plan for the city has also been devised which will be implemented in a month, the nazim said, adding all roads and streets would be renovated under the project.

POWER PROTEST: Hundreds of residents of Mayar Jandol on Friday blocked the main road against prolonged power outages and low voltage. The local traders’ community also joined the protest.

On the occasion, the local government representatives complained the people had been facing acute water shortage as water supply schemes were run on power supply.

They said the duration of loadshedding had increased manifold in the hot weather, and threatened to continue their protest if the Pesco did not take notice of their grievances.

ACCOUNTANT GENERAL VISITS DIR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Accountant General Sharifullah Wazir on Friday said all district account officers had been directed to clear the outstanding bills of the government employees within a week, failing which the employees could directly register complaints in his office.

He stated this while talking to mediapersons after visiting the district accounts office. He checked different sections of the accounts office and expressed satisfaction on the performance of the staff. Mr Wazir directed the staff to behave politely with visiting government employees.

He said positive changes had been introduced in accounts offices where one could see a strict check and balance system. He said a complaint cell had been set up at the AG office in Peshawar where any government employee and contractor could register their complaints. He said a computerised system for payment of pensions had been launched to facilitate the pensioners.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2017

 
The Central Development Working Party has approved construction of twenty small dams in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with a cost of over 970 million rupees.

The approval was granted at CWP’s meeting held in Islamabad today with Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal in the chair.

The meeting also approved to construct a boundary wall of Agriculture University Peshawar and the Federal Government will bear its cost. It approved construction of new blocks in Upper Dir University and establishment of a university in Turbat.

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70 MW Suki Kinari HPP, is an under construction,run-of-the-river hydropower project located on the Kunhar river in the Kaghan valley of Mansehra District Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which has an installed generation capacity of 870 MW. The project is one of Pakistan's largest private-sector power development project, and is being constructed as part of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor's "Early Harvest" projects,
Suki-Kinari HydroPower project to create more than 4,000 jobs for locals.

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Sehat Insaf Card to be extended to 24 lakh families in KP

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has approved the extension of the Sehat Insaf Card to all employees of public and autonomous bodies including university, medical institutes, as well as lawyers, journalists etc.

This decision was taken by the CM during a meeting at Chief Minister Secretariat Peshawar, over extension of Sehat Insaf Card to 69% of the population of the province. The Health secretary gave a detailed presentation on the extension of the scheme, saying that under the CM’s directions, this facility would be extended to 24 lakh families of the province.

Previously it was available for 51% of the population. Under the extension plan, 7 Lakh additional families would be provided with the Sehat Insaf Card. Necessary steps have already been taken and an agreement was reached with State Life Insurance which would be renewed on August 31, 2017. The newly included families would receive healthcare facilities by July 1, 2018.

The Sehat Insaf Card was originally introduced for the poor and deserving families of the province who have no resources to obtain healthcare facilities. However, several different departments request facilitation through Sehat Insaf Card, which would be accommodated through the option of paying a premium.

The Health secretary was directed to write to the concerned department and hold a consultation for the purpose.




 
Work on Latamber Dam under progress

KARAK: Work on Latamber Dam in district Karak is under progress. According to official sources, the project will be completed in three years at a cost of Rs 760 million.

On its completion, the dam will irrigate more than twelve thousand acres barren land in Karak and Bannu districts.
 
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