HYDERABAD, Nov 12: The Hyderabad District Council (HDC) here on Monday passed its deficit free and revised budget of Rs305.631 million for the year 2001-2002 in its budget session amidst rumpus in the house by several members.

The district Nazim Dr Makhdoom Rafiquzzaman in his budget speech claimed that the budget was imported from Karachi and he was simply presenting it to council members.

According to the budget, the non-development expenditures of the district council is Rs218.487 million while the income and expenditure of the district council is estimated at Rs87.144 million.

A study of the budget shows that it is neither a surplus nor a deficit budget.

The budget session was held in Sindhi Language Authority auditorium as development work was going on in the hall of the district council.

An allocation of Rs298.227 has been made for the 45 schemes which also include an amount of Rs56.000 million, to be spent in future on new schemes under the Annual Development Programme 2001-2002. These 45 schemes pertain to water supply, drainage sewerage, rural development, education and health.

Funds to the tune of Rs229.861 million are still to be released by the government for the ADP 2001-2002, according to the official figures.

According to Dr Rafiquzzaman, Sindh government would give Rs500 million for the water supply and sewerage schemes of Hyderabad to be completed in two years.

Apart from these schemes, the provincial government is executing 28 schemes in Hyderabad at a financial outlay of Rs200 million.

There were certain grey areas in the budget figures and there was no one to offer clarification. Even the council members were confused about the budget figures as they failed to understand it in absence of proper briefing by concerned officials.

The district Nazim just read out his budget speech, containing different figures and the members, amidst rumpus by some of them, approved it in a few minutes.

A number of clarifications are needed in the budget document.

For instance the district Nazim mentioned in his speech that under Khushhal Pakistan Programme phase-I and II, 117 schemes with a financial component of Rs207 million were started, out of which 108 schemes were completed and the remaining would be completed in the current month.

However, there is no mention of these schemes in the budget document though on-going and new schemes of ADP 2001-2002 were given on a separate chart.

Likewise there is no mention in the budget document of Sugarcane Cess Road Development Programme, in which 45 schemes have been completed and 30 schemes are in progress at an estimated cost of Rs114 millions, though the district Nazim referred to it in his speech.

Rs63.0 million are expected for the new schemes during current financial year.

The HDC claimed to have earned Rs871.444 million under the head of its income. According to break-up Rs815.595 million was earned through taxes, fees, rent, and other receipts whereas Rs3.20 million were shown in the head of capital income and the opening balance of the council was Rs2.38 million.

The expenditure of the district council was divided in 12 different heads. The expenditure of offices of the district Nazim and Naib Nazim was Rs4,30,000 and Rs3,91,000 respectively.

On social welfare, sports and culture grants Rs1 million were spent. For the development works Rs40.80 million have been spent.

The Nazim Dr Makhdoom Rafiquzzaman in his budget-speech hoped that next year the council would be able to prepare its budget, discussing each and every thing.

He claimed that Sindh government had agreed to ensure availability of funds for salary and non-salary component of district government for 2001-2002.

He added that despite financial constraints, the district government had planned to put the completed schemes into operation and expedite the on-going schemes for immediate completion to check the wastage of resources.

He pointed out that the receipts of the HDC had been reduced by 25 per cent. He added that by adopting austerity measures and reducing non-development expenditure, the development component had been kept at Rs48 million and a major portion of amount would be spent on construction and improvement of roads.

After the Nazim read over the document, Mohammad Yusuf Qureshi moved a motion for the approval of what he said a balanced budget and the members raised their hands showing their approval.

Some other members including Dr Irfan Gul Magsi, Dr Najeeb Memon, Rana Mehmood Ali Khan and Saira Naseer said that the budget should have been presented for debate by the members.

Dr Irfan later held a press conference in the lawns of the SLA office and claimed that the members were given copies of budget just 10 minutes before the session and they were not able to even go through it in detail.

According to Makhdoom Rafiquzzaman and his supporters, since it was the budget provided by the Sindh government, they had to just implement it adding that they could not discuss as it would have been of no use.

NEWSMEN’S WALK-OUT: The journalists covering the budget session staged walk-out to protest the indifferent attitude of HDC convener Nawab Rashid Ali Khan.