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Over 0.1m registered for health insurance cards
By Umer Farooq
Published: June 2, 2015
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The government has registered around 0.1 million people for its social health insurance programme. PHOTO: AFP

PESHAWAR:
The government has registered around 0.1 million people for its social health insurance programme under which health cards will be issued to underprivileged citizens. Cards will be handed over by September 30.


According to an official of the health department, the programme has been launched in Mardan, Chitral, Malakand and Kohat in the first phase, and is currently under way, while more people will be registered soon.

“For the first phase four districts were identified,” the official told The Express Tribune. He added the programme will be extended to other districts of the province later. He, however, declined to be named as he was not authorised to talk to the media.

He also said the total premium for per family is Rs1,700 per year and the coverage for one family per year is Rs175,000.

According to health officials, data of underprivileged people in need of the service will be collected in part from the Benazir Income Support Programme. Only 21% of the data will be obtained from the BISP while the rest will be identified through different means, said officials without pointing them out.

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Only deserving people will be registered and political influence will not be entertained, claimed officials.

When contacted, Riaz Tanoli, who is in charge of the health insurance programme, said the process was still in progress since 0.9 million people (around 0.1 million families) will be registered by September 30. Data of 127,000 persons had been shared with State Life Insurance company of which around 0.1 million have been registered.

“We are all set to start this scheme by October 1 since we have decided to hand over health cards to the registered people by September 30,” Tanoli told The Express Tribune. He added a meeting was scheduled for Tuesday (today) with State Life Insurance wherein other items for the programme will be discussed.

On January 19, the programme was launched in collaboration with Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), a German government-owned development bank. KfW will fund 88% of the total expenditure that amounts to Rs1.34 billion over five years in the shape of a grant, while the remaining 12% will be covered by the K-P government.

The programme will cover 497 pre-existing medical conditions and will also incorporate maternity, child care, common surgeries, accidents, emergencies and common ailments at panel hospitals across the four districts.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 2nd, 2015.



??? who

PTI's MPA, i forgot his name.
 
Water starts flowing in newly-built Baizai Canal


25,000 acres rain-fed land to be irrigated in Mardan, Malakand


Water has started flowing in the newly built Baizai Canal that would eventually cost Rs3.4 billion and irrigate 25,000 acres of land in Mardan district.


This has brought smile on the faces of farmers who would now be able to irrigate their rain-fed land and grow more crops with better yield. “We released water in the canal on May 31. We are testing the system and everything is working smoothly,” Sajjad Ahmed, the project director of the Baizai Canal, told The News.



He pointed out that the irrigation department was ready to release water in the Baizai Canal earlier, but the provincial government delayed it until after the local bodies’ elections on May 30 so that it isn’t blamed for trying to influence the voters.



Sajjad Ahmed said 80 percent of the work on the Baizai Canal system has been completed. “Work on five smaller canals upstream is incomplete, but we released the water in the canal earlier to benefit the farmers and enable them to irrigate their land in the summer,” he added.



The completion of the Baizai Canal project has been delayed for more than two years. It was scheduled to be completed in June 2013, but a host of factors caused the delay. Three construction firms got a share of the project costing Rs850 million each, but irrigation department officials said one of them, Karkun, has been unable to complete its part of the work in accordance with the projected period. The irrigation department is expected to review the situation as it is keen to complete the project as soon as possible and hire staff for operating the canal by July 2016.



The project directorate for the Baizai Canal would function until 2016 before handing over the canal to the operations wing of the irrigation department. Normally, the project directorate doesn’t operate canals but an exception was made in case of the Baizai Canal to start delivering its benefits to the farmers.



The canal was approved by the then Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti, who belonged to Mardan and ensured that the project received the required funds in time. His father Mohammad Azam Hoti, who died recently, took personal interest in the project and oversaw the construction of the canal.



Initially, 20,000 acres of barani land in the Sharqi Baizai area of Mardan’s Katlang tehsil was to be irrigated by the canal, but the project was later reviewed and expanded to irrigate another 5,000 acres of land.



Sajjad Ahmed, who has overseen the execution of the Baizai Canal and was brought back to head the project to accelerate the work, said the main canal is 99 percent ready. He said the canal outlets were also ready while work on five smaller canals is underway. “Farmers would need to build water courses to take water from the canal to their lands,” he added.



Provincial irrigation minister Mahmood Khan and secretary irrigation Mohammad Naeem Khan along with senior officials of the department are expected to pay a visit to Malakand and Mardan districts today to see the progress on the work on Baizai Canal and watch the water flowing in it.
 
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KP to complete work on 12 more small dams
April 13, 2015
The provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is to complete the construction of 12 more small dams in next three years to cultivate more barren lands in the province. This was disclosed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Irrigation, Mehmood Khan while talking to this scribe. He said that construction work on these dams is at various stages of completion.

These dams are included Darmalak Dam (Kohat), Goley Banda Dam (Karak), Mardankhel Dam (Karak), Kundal Dam (Swabi), Zamir Gul Dam (Kohat), Gul Dheri Dam (Nowshera), Jhangra Dam (Haripur), Kiyala Dam (Abbottabad), Fadwalian Dam (Haripur), Jalozai Dam (Nowshera), Shah Kaleem Dam (Nowshera) and Sattai Kalti Dam (Bannu).

Out of these 12 dams five including Darmalak Dam, Zamir Gul Dam (Kohat), Goley Banda Dam and Mardankhel Dam (Karak) and Kundal Dam Swabi will be completed during the current calendar year while the remaining seven will be completed during calendar years 2016 and 2017 respectively.

The Directorate General, Small Dams has also completed the detailed design of seven more small dams including Sanam Dam (Dir Lower), Chamak Mira Dam (Abbottabad), Sumari Payan (Kohat), Kora Nullah Dam (D.I.Khan), Latamber Dam (Karak), Banda Dam Sher Dera Dam in district Swabi.

Similarly, the detail designing of 10 more small dams situated in different districts of the province is also in progress while the feasibility study of 17 more small dams with live storage capacity of 57537 acres feet will bring 38841 acres more land under cultivation. Furthermore, the feasibility study of 12 more small dams is also progress.

The provincial minister said that the completion of these dams will provide perennial irrigation supply to 1,442,749 acres of barren land and will provide drinking water facilities to 216,000 population of the project area in the province.

The total storage capacity of these dams are 18131 acres feet and their completion will help improve the socio-economic conditions and these areas will be become self-sufficient in food grains, vegetables and fruits besides drinking water facility and livestock development and will create job opportunity.
 
Total power around 4MW. Should i start the mighty celebration.
You need to understand the geography of KPK. There are lots of very small villages, consisted of few dozen homes. These villages are located at far flung locations. Installing power supply lines for few dozen homes is not feasible. It is best for install small power generating units for these villages on site. These small dams not only provide enough power for these villages but also store water for few acres of land.
Small steps achieve milestones. If we remain waiting for 4000 MW power projects, we will loose another decade.
 

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