PESHAWAR:The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly was told on Friday that the Department of Social Welfare and Special Education launched 125 handicraft centers under a scheme in the annual development program in 2014-15, with a total of Rs 301.128 million.
In a written reply, the KP assembly was informed that in the centers, 210 women were hired on contract basis for a period of five year, while 12,350 females were trained in different skills.
In 2019-20, the scheme was removed from the ADP, but next year, the authorities approved the project under a non-ADP scheme with a total cost of Rs 99.645 million. At present, there are 117 handicraft centres in different districts of the province.
To another question, Minister for Minorities Affairs Wazirzada told the House that the provincial government was implementing a five percent quota for minorities in government jobs and had reduced the passing marks for police service in order to facilitate the minority community.
He said that under the minority quota, the government was hiring services of 94 lecturers and doctors. Similarly, two percent quota was allocated for minorities in the Social Welfare department due to shortage of seats in the department.
JUIF MPA Ranjit Singh criticized the provincial government for its dual standards in implementation of minorities’ quota and said that the government was claiming a five percent quota in all government jobs, however in a department the two percent quota was being observed.