Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC) is likely to get less than 12 per cent of what it demanded in the development budget for the fiscal year 2016-17, a Qatar-based news website reported on Sunday.

The ministry sought an allocation of Rs 343.085 million in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), but the Planning Commission is not ready to allocate more than Rs40 million for it, saying the ministry under-utilised its resources in the last three years.

This emerged at a meeting convened by the Planning Commission to discuss the ministry’s development proposals for the next year.

Sources privy to the meeting said on condition of anonymity that the Planning Commission raised serious objections to the National Disaster Management Authority’s (NDMA) budget proposals due to under-utilisation of funds in the current fiscal year.

The Planning Commission advised the NDMA to carry out flood-related activities through its regular staff instead of hiring more people. “The NDMA tried to convince the Planning Commission, but it did not endorse the demands,” the sources said.

The MoCC presented 12 projects together with two ongoing projects, including Geomantic Centre for Climate Change and Sustainable Land Management Programme (SLMP) to combat desertification.

The ministry is seeking an allocation of Rs18 million for the geomantic centre, which has been designed to collect carbon emissions and sinks data at the national level.

The project was launched in July 2013 by the Pakistan Environment Protection Agency (Pak-EPA), an attached department of the MoCC. However, the project has not made any headway over the last three years, allegedly due to a ban on recruitment by the federal government that was lifted almost a year ago. Funds allocated for the project remained under-utilised. The Pak-EPA is now seeking extension in the timeframe for the project.

The geomantic centre is aimed at providing technical input and data for climate change policies and plans.

Due to dismal performance and under-utilisation of funds, the Planning Commission was adamant to allocate only Rs15 million for the MoCC. However, the commission agreed to raise the allocation to Rs40 million when the MoCC pleaded its case.

The MoCC has also proposed the Sustainable Land Management Project (SLMP) Phase-II, which would be implemented in 14 dry land districts of the four provinces.