PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Fisheries Department could not manage to spend a single rupee of the government allocated Rs380 million for various projects during the first three months of the current financial year (FY).
It may be mentioned here that Rs111.334 million of the total amount has been released by the finance department.
In fact, the department has postponed plans to increase trout fish production across the province despite the availability of funds.
According to the KP Finance Department documents, the provincial government has approved the Establishment of Trout fish Villages in Malakand and Hazara Division at the cost of Rs180 m while Rs114.6 m were released for the development of Cold Water Fisheries in KP under the Prime Minister Agriculture Emergency Programme but none of the projects has been started by the fisheries department.
Moreover, for the promotion of trout fish farming in Northern areas, the KP Finance Department has released Rs40 million but the fisheries department has yet to start work on the project.
According to sources in the Fisheries Department, several important projects have been made part of the annual development programme to increase trout production in different districts of Malakand and Hazara divisions where cold water is available, but due to the incompetence of the fisheries department, no such project could be launched.
Critics believe that the cost of projects will increase with the passage of time.
Sources state that on one hand, the department is unable to spend funds while on the other, the provincial government is trying to limit hatcheries to one district; and Swat, Dir and Malakand which are suitable for the trout production have been ignored completely.
Earlier, the department had set up several hatcheries in Upper Swat to increase trout production but the recent floods destroyed most of them.
