HYDERABAD, Jan 31: The District Council, Hyderabad, on Friday demanded of the prime minister to bind the MNAs and MPAs to utilize the grant of Rs10 million, given by the government, in consultation with the Nazims of union councils.

A resolution regarding it was tabled by Mohammad Yousuf Qureshi.

He said that it would also give local bodies representatives a sense of participation in the development funds.

He urged the prime minister to reduce the local call rates of telephone and line rent by 50 per cent because the facility had become a need all over the world and the time limit of five minutes per local call should also be done away with.

The resolution was unanimously adopted.He paid tributes to the federal cabinet, which in its first meeting decided to announce deduction of 12 per cent in the electricity tariff, 10-20 per cent deduction in life-saving drugs and in the prices of ghee, sugar, and gas.

The resolution hailed the decision of the prime minister during his visit to Karachi of waiving outstanding electricity bills of less than Rs10,000 and dues of those who use electricity from the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) and had not cleared them since five years.

It stated that the KESC had also reduced dues of less than Rs10,000 by 50 per cent of its consumers and the remaining was to be paid in 10 instalments.

He demanded of the prime minister to lift the regulation regarding time limit on local telephone calls and reduce line rent and local call charges.

In the resolution of Rana Mehmood Ali Khan, the session demanded of the prime minister to announce a relief package for the consumers of interior Sindh like he did in Karachi.

He pointed out that the people of interior Sindh were facing great difficulty because of detection bills and they deserved immediate relief.

Another resolution of Rana Mehmood, pertaining to the facilities for Darul-Aman, was also adopted by the session without any debate.

He told the session that currently 30 women were lodged in the Daraul Aman, which was in a shambles, and added that most of the women had no food, and medical and sanitation facilities.

He said that though the institution comes under the control of the Centre, yet it gets a negligible amount in the head of grant, while the staff belongs to the provincial government’s department of social welfare.

The counsel demanded in the resolution that proper arrangements for lodging and boarding of women should be ensured and an annual budget should also be approved.