ATTOCK, June 27: The Attock Tehsil Nazim, Qazi Khalid Mehmood, on Friday presented a Rs170.929 million budget of the tehsil for fiscal 2003-2004 with major emphasis on water, sanitation and other schemes.

The special budget session, held at the Municipal Administration hall, was presided over by the Tehsil council convenor Raza Khan Behbudi.

The Nazim in his budget speech said Rs10 million had been earmarked for upgradation of tube-wells to meet the shortage of water which was occurred due to the construction of the 52km-long power channel of Ghazi Barotha Hydropower Project (GBHP), causing great difficulty to the residents of various areas to fetch drinking water

He said that during the digging of power channel, the ground water level has depleted, affecting the exiting water supply schemes in the tehsil besides decreasing the water level at the domestic and agricultural tubewells in a large number of villages as majority of wells have near to dry up.

However he claimed the prevailing problems of drinking water will be resolved in next financial year and for this purpose, a comprehensive contingency plan had been prepared.

He said that the total revenue target has been fixed at Rs140.252 million and as expenditures at Rs100.486 million, including Rs20.60 million for new development schemes, Rs10.59 million for water supply, Rs10.58 million for sanitation, Rs10.73 million for women welfare and sports, Rs0.5 million for scholarships, RS1.5 million for street-lights.

Substantial allocation has been made for sports activities and facilities such as construction of parks, playgrounds, promotion of sports, purchase of insecticides and for firebrigade unit, he added.

The Tehsil Nazim said that all 22 union councils of the tehsil would share the development schemes equally and Nazims and members of all union councils would be consulted on development projects.

He stressed the members to make their union councils to work for their constituencies with sincerity, devotion and dedication.

Opposition leader of the house and Naib Nazim union council 3, Muhammad Akram Khan, appreciated the budget and assured his cooperation to the Tehsil Nazim, in the development of the tehsil.

However he said that liability of teachers about their pensions and other allowances after their retirement had not been shown in the budget while the allocation for fire-brigade unit was not sufficient and demanded the Nazim to purchase new vehicles and equipments to improve the efficiency of the fire- brigade unit.

Meanwhile, Naib Nazim union council Shamsabad, Ziaullah Khan protested that copies of the proposed budget were no provided to the members of the house.