KRG Allocates Annual Budget for Public Services in Disputed Territories
Former KRG Prime Minister Barham Salih opens a plant nursery in the town of Makhmour (2012) as part of a massive environmental campaign.
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—Residents of the disputed territories say that they are caught in the conflict between the central government in Baghdad and Erbil.
Khalil Makhmouri, 34, a resident of Makhmour in Nineveh province, says that people in his area lack most basic services and that he feels sad when he compares his town with the rest of the Kurdistan Region.
“Even Baghdad has turned its back on us,” he says.
Hilal Mahmoud, a resident of Jalawla, in Diyala province, says that because the area where he lives is called “disputed territories,” neither Erbil nor Baghdad feel responsible for their wellbeing.
Maysar Hajji, the mayor of Shangal in Nineveh province says that Baghdad is legally bound to provide the budget for his town’s public services, but that most of the funding for his projects comes from Erbil and Duhok.
“Up to now, the Kurdish government has built for us 4 schools, roads, electricity, a playground and a venue,” says Hajji. “The central government hasn’t built a single project worth mentioning.”
Hajji expects US$28 million to arrive from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) for public projects in Shangal.
According to data provided to Rudaw by Kurdistan’s disputed territories’ committee, the KRG has spent more than 43 trillion Iraqi Dinars (approx. $3 billion) on projects in the disputed territories.
In 2010, the Kurdish Parliament unanimously approved an annual budget for public services in the disputed territories.
“All the parties in parliament agree on this budget,” says Adnan Osman, an MP from the Change Movement (Gorran).
Omer Adalat, member of the disputed territories’ committee says that KRG’s 2012 budget for the area was 50 billion Iraqi Dinars.
But Omer Hawrami, an MP from the Kurdistani Alliance says that the Kurdish government spends much more than that amount in territories outside the borders of Kurdistan.
“How about the money spent on their electricity?” Hawrami says. “How about the costs of the Peshmerga troops who have been there for more than a month now? In all cases, the Kurdish parliament is united in serving them.”
Omer from the disputed territories’ committee says, “We have asked the Kurdish parliament to allocate 150 billion Dinars for 2013, but we don’t know how much they will approve.”
Apart from public projects, KRG officials claim that they have shouldered the burden of employing thousands of Kurdish residents of the disputed territories in their respective professions.
“7,000 Kurdish teachers in Nineveh receive payment from the KRG as well as 3,000 Peshmergas,” says Khasraw Goran, former deputy governor of Nineveh.
http://www.rudaw.net/english/kurds/5574.html
