July 19, 2002	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 8, 1423

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QUETTA, July 18: Tehsil and town Nazimeen and Naib Nazimeen of Balochistan have demanded upward revision of the current budget allocation, which, according to them, is not sufficient for the requirements of the local governments.

Chiltan Town Nazim Mohammad Ismail Lahri made this demand, while speaking as a spokesman for the Nazimeen at a press conference here on Thursday. The Nazimeen and Naib Nazimeen of other union and town councils were also present.

Mr Lahri also demanded of the federal and provincial governments to immediately implement sections 15, 52 and 182 of the Local Government Ordinance, 2001, and devolve Wasa, the public health engineering department and the Quetta Development Authority to the town level.

He said a meeting of Nazimeen and Naib Nazimeen had been held in Ziarat the other day to discuss the problems of their areas and the electorate.

The meeting demanded that the ordinance be implemented in letter and in spirit so that the problems could be resolved at the lower level.

It observed that district coordination officers were interfering in the affairs of local councils, specially the attitude of the Quetta DCO was a big hurdle in running the system. The performance of the chairman of the Local Government Board was said to be very disappointing. The meeting through a resolution demanded replacement of both the officials.

The resolution said that despite the passage of almost one year, powers had not yet been shifted to the tehsil and town councils, which were facing various difficulties in resolving the problems of the people.

Mr Lahri said the government had provided funds only for the payment of salaries of Nazimeen and Naib Nazimeen, while tehsil and town councils’ development had completely been ignored. He added that the councils could not prepare their budgets, as they had not been provided with development funds by the provincial government.

Another resolution, adopted at the meeting, demanded that indirect release of development grants to tehsil and town governments be stopped and that the grants be issued to the governments directly.

It also demanded just allocation of funds under the Khushal Pakistan Programme and the Social Action Programme. The resolution called for evolving a new formula of fund distribution among the tehsil, town and district governments.