GILGIT, Feb 19: The Northern Areas administration has issued a notification to ensure allocation of funds for women councillors in the local bodies in the annual development programme, according to official sources.

They said recently the women elected on 33 per cent reserved seats had complained that they had been denied funds in the Annual Development Pro-gramme which had rendered them useless as they were unable to address problems in their constituencies.

The women councillors from district and union councils called on the regional chief secretary recently who directed local government officials to ensure provision of funds for women councillors in all six districts of the Northern Areas.

However, their male counterparts, including the vice-chairman of Gilgit district council, Eiman Shah, said that the decision was unjust as the funds for women would be provided by slashing their funds.

He complained that there were no funds allocated for women in the local bodies throughout the country where women councillors are given an honorarium.

They called upon the local administration to either withdraw the decision or the government should increase funds according to the increase in the number of women seats.

He said they were already suffering due to paucity of funds as they were supposed to initiate development schemes for the whole population without any gender discrimination but the new decision would badly affect the ongoing development schemes in the region.

MAN INJURED: Unidentified men injured a local travel agent around 8:40pm in Gilgit city on Saturday. The injured man, Sultan, was admitted to a local hospital where his condition is said to be stable.