May 21, 2003	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 18,1424

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RAWALPINDI, May 20: The district governments in the province received a setback after President Pervez Musharraf rejected a request of the district Nazims to waive annual allocation for the citizen community boards (CCBs), sources told Dawn here on Monday.

Under the Local Government Ordinance 2001, all district, tehsil and union council administrative structures are bound to allocate at least 25 per cent of their annual development budget for the CCBs before the beginning of the new fiscal year.

On previous two occasions, the President had waived this condition on the ground that the CCBs were not existent. The district Nazims this year again had moved the office of the President for an extension in the waiver for the coming fiscal year.

However, the President, on the advice of the National Reconstruction Bureau, turned down the request and directed the local governments to make the allocations as required under the ordinance.

The district Nazims were of the view that they merited an extension for another year as ground realities had still not changed and the CCBs continued to be non-existent. The Nazims said they had very meagre funds for development which would further decrease after allocation for the CCBs.

They maintained that this would be more difficult for the backward areas which would not have anything left behind to initiate new projects.

Giving an example of Rawalpindi district, the sources said that it had received a budget of Rs280 million, out of which Rs70 million would be allocated for the CCBs, while a major portion of the remaining amount would be used for financing the ongoing schemes.

Under the ordinance, the unspent amount of the CCBs would be credited under the same head in the following year’s budget in addition to fresh allocation.

Explaining the essence of the law, which provides for establishment of the CCBs, the sources said that it was aimed to help citizens actively participate in the development and non- development activities of the local governments.

They pointed out that the involvement of the CCBs would ensure transparency and accountability in the development process due to the contribution of the community in the projects.

Regarding the proposed mechanism for spending these funds, they said that the projects would be based on community ownership system and the principles of bottom-up planning by involving the CCBs.

The CCBs, they said, would contribute 20 per cent and could avail up to 80 per cent financing from the local governments as matching grants.