The NWFP government, in its budget for fiscal 2008-09, has targeted the resolution of the problems of food and security in the province. "Handsome sanctions of funds have been made for the resolution of these two problems faced by the province," said NWFP Finance Minister Mohammad Hamayun Khan in a post-budget press conference here in the Cabinet Room of the Civil Secretariat. NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussein and senior officials of the departments of finance, planning, and development were also present on the occasion. He said the provincial government is likely to spend over Rs 16 billion on payment of subsidy on wheat to provide flour to people at the reasonable price in the province. The provincial government in the annual budget for financial year 2008-09 has sanctioned Rs 2 billion in this regard. The provincial government, he said, required to feed more than 30 million populations including tribal areas and Afghan refugees. The province is required 3.5 million tonnes of wheat of which only one million tonnes of commodity are produced in the province while the remaining 2.5 million tonne of wheat are purchased from the open market of Punjab, Passco, and the international market. This year according to a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between NWFP and Punjab and the later was required to supply 0.750 million tonnes while Passco has to supply 0.3 million tonnes and the remaining shortage would have to be met from international market. However, the missing of the target of wheat purchase by the government of Punjab, the province will have to import the commodity. For the fiscal 2008-09, the provincial government has announced a record budget of Rs 170.904 billion with the estimated expenditure of Rs 170.559 billion, which show a surplus of Rs 345 million. As the province is faced with deteriorated law and order situation, the budget of police has been increased by 28 percent while the budget of the provincial Department of Home Affairs has went up by 47 percent. The provincial government during next financial year will recruit 7,500 police force, revamping CID police and would launch a capacity building programme for the police. The government is working on a plan for stopping the spillover of the militancy from tribal to the settled areas and in this connection has sanctioned a fund of Rs 1,466 million for the police force to address the problem in all districts of the province. A special package is under study for Mardan another package of Rs 9.9 billion is being discussed with the federal government. The salient features of the NWFP budget for financial year 2008-09, he said there are 24 percent increase in annual development programme, levy of no new tax and abolition of documentation fee of patwari, reforms in property tax and abolition of discretional powers of patwaris and flat rate of taxes. The provincial government has also increased royalty rates on minerals, which would help earn more resources for the province and restored self-finance scheme in educational institutions, fixing of flat rate for abiyana and 20 percent increase in the salaries of employees and pensions of the retired servants. For better utilisation of water resources a new department of power and energy would be established while students getting first position in SSC examination would be given financial assistance of Rs 5,000 to get admission to college while five best schools of the district would be awarded a prize of Rs 0.5 million on the basis of result in the SSC examination. Poor cardiac patients would be provided free medical treatment while arrangements for (Sarai) inns like accommodation would be made for the attendants of the patients admitted to the big hospitals of the city. In the industrial sector, a total of 60 schemes included 24 ongoing and 36 new would be carried out with a fund of Rs 1.141 for skill development and employment opportunities for youth. The project of the sector are included the establishment of Pak-China Economic Zone at Hattar, establishment of small industrial estate in Charsadda, industrial estates in Khushal Garh and Kohat Tall Roads, establishment of technical education institutions at Lakki Marwat, Haripur, Dir Lower, Dir Upper, reconstruction of the existing industrial estates, provision of fire-extinguishing equipment in all big industrial estates and construction of boundary wall around Hayatabad Industrial Estate. For promotion of the SME sector, a fund of Rs 200 million has been sanctioned in the budget for provision of soft loans to small traders. Similarly, the concept of the public-private partnership is also being carried out in the province. In reply to a question regarding water conservation and storage, he said that the government is constructing Gomal Zam and Kurram Tangi dams, which are also stressed by the Economic Coordination Council (ECC) while Manda Dam has also been included in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) of the federal government. Furthermore, the provincial government is also giving priority to the construction of small and medium water reservoirs for which a budget of Rs 1.27 billion has been sanctioned in the budget. Regarding the implementation of the decision of arbitration tribunal on net profit on hydropower generation, he said that the matter has been taken with the federal government. However, he said that the matter is sub-judice and the resolution would require time. The minister defended the restoration of the self-finance scheme in educational institutions, saying it would not affect the merit and would be implemented on additional seats.