Faryab governor comes hard on some ministries

MAIMANA (Pajhwok): The governor of northwestern Faryab province on Thursday criticized a number of ministries for failing to carry out development projects and accused them of negligence and incompetency.

Sayed Anwar Sadat said the ministries of energy and water, public works, urban development, public health had failed to meet their pledges about development activities in their related areas.

He said the construction of a 30-kilometer road in Maimana city, the provincial capital, the 30-kilometer Maimana-Balcharagh road and asphalting of the 30 kilometers Maimana-Attakhan road were among 2016 year projects which could not be implemented.

 “The construction of Almar Dam cost $53 million but the project is yet to be implemented despite six years have already passed and eventually the contract for the dam was canceled. I suggested the government to open the dam project again to procurement, but the suggestion was ignored,” he said.

He said reconstruction of Dahandara Dam, the activation of Maimana water supply network and completion of an incomplete 100-bed civil hospital in Maimana city were other projects of 2016 which remained unimplemented.

The implementation of these projects could generate jobs for hundreds of residents of the province and prevent the youth from migrating to foreign countries, Sadat said. But the projects were not executed due to negligence and incompetency of the ministries concerned.

The Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) had pledged to build medical and Sharia Law faculty in Faryab, but the ministry would not do so even in the next year, he said.

He said the governor’s house had repeatedly contacted the central government and the president about the mentioned projects, but their demands were ignored.

“If the central government continued ignoring Faryab people’s demands, I would travel to Kabul and formally complain,” he said.

However, deputy water and energy minister said his ministry had been previously lacking enough capacity, an issue that had been recently addressed. He said the ministry was now able to implement projects approved for Faryab province.

He assured Faryab people contracts for Almar and Dahandara dams would be signed in near future.

mds/ma