PESHAWAR: The Federal government has not yet released the Rs 40.1 million grant offered by the SAARC for upgrading the Maternal Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) Programme in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This was stated by Dr. Hidayatullah, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer at MNCH programme KP, while talking to Daily Times on Sunday. He added that many meetings had so far been held with the officials of the federal government for dispersing the amount of Rs 40.1 million announced by SAARC for the KP MNCH Programme but the federal government was using delaying tactics with KP. He went on to say that the amount may be converted by the federal government to other projects or departments, adding that the federal government did not want to upgrade the MNCH centres in KP. He further informed that after the announcement of the grant by SAARC representatives, the KP, MNCH also prepared PC1 for the said project as per format and later submitted it to the federal government with all the prerequisites. Referring to the last meeting with the federal government representatives, Dr Hidayatullah said that the meeting took place in April, 2015. He expressed that MNCH Programme, KP had been deprived of said grant and that was a major reason behind problems at MNCH centres within province. Dr Hidyatullah went on to explain that they had planned to upgrade the MNCH centres in the areas of Manki Sharif of Nowshera, Yar Hussain of Swabi and Lakki Marwat district of the province with monetary assistance offered by SAARC but now their plans had turned into mere dreams. He informed that they anticipated on improving the overall capacity building of their employees and enhance civil works, infrastructure and ensure an adequate supply of the required equipment to these centres. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) project commenced on October15 2014 and will ended on December 31, 2017 as per the statistics provided by the MNCH Programme. The KP MNCH official said that SAARC while keeping in view the increasing number of mortality rate of mothers and neonates in mind, had announced offering Rs 40.1 million for providing the required equipment and expertise to reduce the deaths of newborns and mothers. Upgrading the MNCH centres across KP along with overcoming deficiencies in these centres in the province was also a part of the project, he added. In the light of the offered amount, the MNCH, KP was willing to upgrade machinery, renovate or construct buildings along with training for its employees to bring them at par with international standards. The department has no monetary resources to carry out renovation and construction of buildings along with provision of all the necessary equipment to MNCH centres, he stated. However, it was also stated by the Health and Nutrition expert that the maternal mortality rate across the country stood at 276 out of 100,000. He revealed lack of expertise among neonatologists and the shortage of skilled birth attendants as the reasons behind the high rates. According to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government statistics, the maternal mortality rate in KP reached 274 out of 100,000 live births and only 61 per cent of females in the province receive any form of care during pregnancy. It also mentioned that only 35 per cent of women receive any form of care after delivery (post-natal care) from a skilled birth attendant. However it was also revealed that only 48 per cent deliveries in KP were attended by skilled birth attendants.