FAIZABAD (Pajhwok): A five-year development plan in northeastern Badakhshan province has been launched amid criticism from economy department and provincial council’s that it has neglected remote districts.
The plan has been drafted in seven sections that included good governance, rule of law and human rights, education and culture, health and nutrition, social safety, natural resources and sub-soil assets, agriculture and rural development and private sector.
Badakhshan is among the mountainous provinces of Afghanistan, having borders with Tajikistan, China and Pakistan. The restive districts of the province remain cutoff from the rest of the province for six months in a year due to heavy snow-fall.
Abdullah Naji Nazari, provincial council head, welcomed the development plan, saying it was not without shortcomings.
He told Pajhwok Afghan News the plan should have been prepared in a manner that it should have taken grievances of bordering districts into consideration. “In the five-year plan there are lesser projects for far-flung districts.”
He said the plan’s focus should’ve been those bordering districts residents. Talabuddin Qaderi, provincial council deputy, said one of the shortcomings of the plan was that projects for some districts were allocated while some were give less schemes.
He added in remote areas less development projects have been implemented. “Balance has not been taken into consideration in the plan.”
For instance, Qaderi said, there were lack of roads, health clinics, potable water and schools in Darwazha, Sheghnan or Raghestan districts.
The provincial economy department was also of the view that the plan had short-comings.
Abdul Ghafoor Forogh, director economy department, said a lot of technical work had been done while preparing the plan but it did not take into consideration the view from key departments of the province.
Osama Basir, head of the services sector, said the plan was developed based on the size and population of every district.
He added more than 2,300 development projects have been enlisted in the plan and on yearly basis 470 projects would be implemented in 28 districts of the province.
Basir did not specify the budget of the projects, but said they were being paid by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
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