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| July 11, 2002 | Thursday | Rabi-us-Sani 29, 1423 |
District governments’ autonomy curtailed: DCOs to report on performance
LAHORE, July 10: Several amendments have been made to the Local Government Ordinance, 2001, authorizing the provincial governments to instruct any district government in any matter in the “best public interest.”
The district coordination officers have been authorized to collect information on the functioning of respective district governments and to send it to the provincial government.
Taxation by the district, tehsil and union councils has been made subject to prior approval by the provincial government.
Another amendment has empowered nominated officials of the district departments concerned to enforce local government laws like the Pure Food and the Drugs Acts, and to impose fines through a ticketing system.
The amendments were announced by Local Government Minister Hamid Saeed Akhtar at a news conference here at his Civil Secretariat office. He said the law would be provided constitutional protection through an amendments package to be announced shortly by the federal government.
He said the president had approved the amendments during his visit to Lahore on Saturday.
The local government law was devised by the National Reconstruction Bureau but promulgated separately by the provinces.
In its original form the provinces could instruct the district governments on three matters. The minister said this had been a legal flaw having the potential of undermining the effectiveness of provincial government’s control of the districts.
He said the DCOs were being empowered to collect information on district governments since the absence of such a provision was creating difficulties. Taxation has been linked to prior provincial approval in view of double taxation.
The minister said nominated officers of the district departments concerned were being authorized to impose fines on violation of local laws to allow their enforcement.
The minister said the Punjab government had requested the Lahore High Court to depute judicial magistrates for the purpose. On their induction these magistrates would try those failing to pay the fines, he said.
The minister said allocations by the provincial finance commissions would be final. This, he said, was meant to prevent the provincial or the federal governments from favouring or victimizing a district government by changing allocation of funds. The commission would make separate allocations for tehsil councils. Urban union councils would get three time the funds allocated for rural areas, he said. The minister said the union councils would be authorized to supervise development projects up to Rs100,000. The water and drainage schemes over and above this limit would be supervised by tehsil councils, and roads and buildings projects by the district administration.
Under the amended law, he said, the Local Government Commission’s responsibilities of special inspection, audit and inquiry had been delegated to the departments concerned. The departments would now send reports to the commission which would conduct only specific inspections.
The minister said all development authorities were being merged with the district governments concerned. A notification in this respect, he said, would be issued on July 31.
Replying to questions, he claimed that the best thing about devolution of powers was that the district coordination officers were working under the district Nazims.
The minister said the provincial government was closely monitoring the performance of district governments. So far, he said, there had been no serious complaint of corruption or mismanagement from any of the Punjab districts.
He said the decision of Multan district government to grant permission for a public meeting was illegal since the provincial government had disallowed it. Under the local government law, he said, the Nazimeen had given an undertaking in writing that they did not belong to any political party and would not take part in any political activity. Those not abiding by it were liable to be dismissed.
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