PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has directed the provincial local government department to shif t the infrastructure schemes, which were within its purview till now, to the relevant local governments in the province.

He was chairing a meeting to discuss development schemes under the Annual Development Programme (ADP) for financial year 2015-16here on Friday. He asked the education department to raise the standardof education at government schools to bring them at par with other institutions imparting quality education.

He also approved launching of a household survey in the province to ascertain the actual number of out-of-school children and reasons of their being not going to school, said a handout.

The meeting approved the health insurance scheme for holders of Insaf Cards. Under the scheme, 900,000 families of all the card-holders will avail of indoor medical treatment and surgeries in government hospitals. It discussed the ongoing and proposed new ADP schemes for the education, health, local government, energy and power, science and information technology, finance and social welfare sectors.

Mr Khattak also directed for converting the mosque schools into regular primary schools in areas where the number of students was enough for the purpose. He directed to devolve most ofthe infrastructure development and civic amenities schemes to the local governments.

According to another handout, the chief minister informed a meeting that the PTI-led government had taken several initiatives for bringing improvement in health delivery system and provision of free medical services to the people in government hospitals of the province.

The initiatives, he said, included provision of free emergency medical services, establishment of Insulin Bank, incentives for maternal health services, immunisation services and treatment of critical illnesses.

He said that Rs1 billion had been allocated in 2014-15 to the free emergency service, which was launched with an allocation of Rs980 million in 2013-14. He said that the free emergency service was being provided in teaching and district headquarters hospitals throughout the province.