December 25, 2002	Wednesday	Shawwal 20, 1423

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MANSEHRA, Dec 24: The local government system in the NWFP is facing a host of problems due to abolition of the office of Assistant Director Local Government and Rural Development Department (AD LG&RDD).

The department had been functioning as a watchdog body to monitor the activities of the union councils and to implement the decisions taken at their monthly meetings in the NWFP.

The offices of the AD LG&RDD have not been abolished in the other three provinces under the devolution plan.

Due to infighting between the secretary and the director-general of the provincial local government department at the time of launching of the devolution plan, the Local Council Board at provincial level and the office of the AD LG&RDD at district level, which had been playing a pivotal role in the local government system since 1962, were abolished, an official of the local government department told Dawn.

He said Section 52 of the Local Government Ordinance, 2001, clearly provides that functions, administrative and financial powers and the staff of the office of the AD LG&RDD would be handed over to the tehsil municipal administration (TMA), but this was not done and the office of the AD LG&RDD was abolished.

In the past, decisions taken by the union councils were implemented through the office of the AD LG&RDD. However, no one takes care of the monthly meetings of union councils now and the minutes of the meeting are dumped either in the office of the DCO or the TMO.

The DCO and the TMO do not own the responsibility of controlling the affairs of the union councils. The DCO does not go beyond the 12 departments devolved to the district level and the TMO is the head of an agency responsible for providing services to the citizens and merely signs salary bills of the union council employees.

After the abolition of the office of the AD LG&RDD, the most crucial function of the union councils — maintaining the record of birth and death and marriage and divorce — has badly affected. Earlier, the office of the AD LG&RDD after collecting data from the union councils used to send it to the provincial government every month but this practice has now ceased, an official of the local government department told Dawn.

The union council Nazimeen, most of whom are simple matriculate, have not been imparted any training and are unaware of their powers and functions nor do they know how to levy taxes and how to generate income of the union councils.

Same is the case with the DCOs and the TMOs as most of them are from the DMG group. In the past, the LG&RDD offices were run by the rural academy trained officers and had sufficient knowledge of the working of the local government institutions.

The Nazimeen do not levy new taxes due to fear of losing support of their electorate which has reduced the income of the union councils. In the past, the secretary/administrator of a union council was responsible for generating income and was answerable to the AD LG&RDD for not achieving the target given to him. But now, he is not answerable to anybody. In the past, a union council was capable of carrying out some schemes through the self-generated income in the range of Rs5,000 to Rs50,000 but now this practice has also ceased.

The abolition of the office of the AD LG&RDD has also caused heavy losses to the national exchequer. In the Mansehra district alone, thousands of development schemes were abandoned half-way due to non-operation of funds amounting to Rs20 million which were frozen in July 2002.

The staff of the office of the AD LG&RDD was posted in the TMA office but no one had bothered to utilize that huge amount which lays frozen till date. The road-making machinery of the office of the AD LG&RDDD worth millions of rupees is rusting in the premises of the district council Mansehra office but no one is ready to take charge of it.

The office of the AD LG&RDD is functioning normally in other three provinces where performance of the union councils is not only more efficient, but they are more stronger financially and active under the supervision of the office of the AD LG&RDD.

It is high time to streamline the functioning of the local government system or to switch over to the old system in the larger interest of the people of the province.