KARACHI, June 28: The city council resumed its discussion on the second day of its budget session on Friday.

The members expressed their resentment and confusion over the proposed budget of the year 2002-2003. Most of the speakers expressed confusion over the proposed budget and many members of the house deplored the budget for having very small allocation for the UCs.

Razzaq Siddique in his speech expressed astonishment over the allocation of Rs500,000 for the promotion of civic sense and Rs20 million for the promotion of Arabic and Rs10 million for the promotion of Urdu .

It was pointed out that Rs1 million had been allocated for the KMC officers colony at Gutter Bagicha, in spite of the fact the case was litigation in the Supreme Court.

Habib Hasan of Lyari Town said that more powers had been given to the city Nazim and less than three percent of the development budget had been given to the UCs.

Ghulam Akber pointed out that there was no mention of staff of the Naib Nazim in the budget and asked whether those working in the Naib Nazim secretariat were all volunteers.

He further said the budget did not highlight the needs of rural areas and katchi abadis situated within the developed towns. He questioned the need for allocating Rs300,000 for the DC pager service for the officers of the city government since the service had been disconnected.

Nevertheless, during an informal talk with an official of the finance department he was informed that according to legal obligations one head must be continued for at least three years and the amount now represented bills of mobile phone for authorised officers.

Mangla Sharma, woman councillor from Jamshed Town, said that funds for the development of minority affairs were meagre and demanded special funds for the Purpose.

Sajjad Dara, UC Nazim from Gulberg Town, delivered the last speech of day, and defended the proposed budget saying it was time the city had a change of face which would be helpful in attracting foreign investment.

He stressed that the development work done by the towns would ultimately benefit the union councils. He also defended the purchase of heavy machinery by the city government.

In an another development, a group of members including Kafeel Jafri and Saeed Ghani, has presented a cut motion in the council secretariat, demanding Rs5 million for the UCs instead of Rs1 million.

According to details this motion would be presented in the house on Saturday. It requests the transfer of Rs720 million from different heads and increasing the development fund for the UCs to Rs5 million.—PPI