No mega project in Nuristan since 2012: governor

JALALABAD (PAN): Nuristan governor Tamim Nuristani on Saturday acknowledged that no mega development project could be executed in the eastern province since last year, accusing the Ministry of Finance of refusing to release funds in this regard, despite President Hamid Karzai’s directives.

“President Karzai has accepted my request to allocate budget for development schemes in Nuristan, but the finance ministry is yet to release funds for the purpose since 2012,” Nuristani told Pajhwok Afghan News during an interview.

In the current budget, the central government had set aside $20 million for Nuristan’s development, the governor said, adding the money would be spent on the construction of a teacher training collage and a big hospital.

He said some of ministries had failed to spend their entire budgets last year in Nuristan, where only five departments had their own buildings.

The governor strongly denied a claim that hundreds of weapons and vehicles had gone disappeared in his province.

He said 22 vehicles with various provincial departments had been destroyed and another 14 damaged, but no mechanic had so far sent to the province by the ministry concerned to repair them.

Recently, a senator from Nuristan, Hafiz Abdul Qayum, claimed a large number of vehicles and weapons were missing in Nuristan.

The governor said the central government should send an official team to investigate Qayum’s claim.

myn/ma

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