PESHAWAR: After detection of huge financial irregularities in the federal government-funded project of the installation of water filtration plants in the province and years of delay in its execution, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is contemplating to launch a similar project on its own, it is learnt.

The local government and rural development department (LG&RDD) will initially require Rs4.345 billion to install water filtration plants at union council level, according to sources in the department.

The sources said a concept paperhad already been moved to the planning and development department (P&DD) by the LG&RDD for approval.

When contacted, LG&RDD minister Inayatullah Khan confirmed that his department was mulling over the proposal to install water filtration plants in the province.

He said when the contractor failed to execute the federal governmentfunded Clean Drinking Water for All project, he suggested the chief minister to wind up the project.

The minister, however, said the chief minister wanted the launch of a similar project to be funded by the provincial government for supply of clean water to the people.

`The chief minister has told me to prepare a plan for the launch of the project and forward it to him,` he said. The sources said the number of filtration plants to be installed and the place of their installation had yet to be finalised as the proposed project was in the conceptual stage.They said water filtration plants couldn`t be installed across the province due to availability of limited financial resources and instead, the plants would be installed in the selected areas at union council level.

The sources said the new project would be designed meticulously in light of the lesson learnt from the failure of the previous project funded by the federal government and that a new PC-I of the project would be designed.

Under the Clean Drinking Water for All project approved in 2006 by the CDWP and launched by former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, 6,486 water purification plants were to be installed throughout the country, including 986 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 63 in Fata and the country`s northern areas as part of a federal government strategy to provide clean drinking water in urban and semi-urban areas alike.

The estimated cost of the installation of 986 water filtration plants inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa was Rs2.197 billion.

Of the total allocated funds, the provincial government had released Rs631 million to the contractor against the guarantees of different banks. The contractor installed 230 filtration plants in 14 districts of the province before leaving the project incomplete.

According to the sources, when the provincial government learned that the contractor was not installing more plants, it asked the relevant banks to withhold the release of the bank guarantees until the adjustment of advance payment. However, the LG&RDD officials concerned were stunned when they learnt that the bank guarantees were fake.

The matter was raised on the floor of the provincial assembly recently.

The House was informed that the federal and provincial governments were considering taking action against three commercial banks for releasing millions of rupees to a firmagainst fake guarantees.

According to the documents shared with the assembly, the provincial government is confronted with deception, forgery, fabrication and fraud and that the government is undertaking a comprehensive investigation and criminal proceedings, including registration of cases, against the management of Ideal Hydrotech Systems Limited, their partners and accomplices for forgery, fraud and fabrication.

LG&RDD minister Inayatullah Khan had told the assembly that the Bank of Punjab, Allied Bank Limited and another commercial bank had released a heavy amount of money to the contractor against fake guarantees.

He had also said the provincial government has been misled (by the banks) and that the government had also requested the State Bank of Pakistan to take action against the perpetrators of the fraud, which included the `misrouting` of cheques.