Parliamentary committee demands higher budget for health, environment

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The Parliamentary health and environment committee has pressed for an increase in the allocations for the ministries of health and environment, an Iraqi lawmaker said on Wednesday. “The general budget for the year 2010 is not so different from last year’s. The allocations made for the Ministry of Environment is less than 1 percent in a country that has 25,000 mines and is suffering from radioactive pollution,” MP Bassem Shareef from the Fadila Bloc told IraqiNews.com news agency. “This percentage is one tenth of that allocated for the Ministry of Defense. The government is protecting Iraqis from terrorism, while killing them with daily environment-related hazards,” Shareef pointed out. “Nearly 6.9 percent of the total budget has been allocated for the Health Ministry, which is not enough either” he added. Iraq’s 2010 general budget, totaling 87 trillion Iraqi dinars (ID), has been debated by the Iraqi Parliament. SS (P)/SR 2