June 24, 2006	Saturday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 27, 1427

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MIANWALI, June 23: The first district government did not spend even a penny on the citizen community board projects during its whole tenure.

Although it did launch some 42 projects, including 29 controversial turbine tubewell irrigation schemes, last year when new elections were to be held, it could not have them passed in the budget. Funds under the CCB head still stand to the tune of Rs92 million.

All local governments from union council to the district council are bound to earmark 25 per cent of their development budgets for spending through CCB schemes. Each project identified by CCBs has to receive up to 80 per cent matching grant of its total cost.

The newly-elected district council, on the district government’s motion, cancelled all CCB schemes of the previous government for being over-estimated and violative of the relevant law.

Ironically, the present government approved 86 CCB projects, including 68 controversial turbine tubewell irrigation schemes, almost with the same cost estimation and the legal procedure as adopted by the outgoing government.

Some of the aggrieved parties moved the high court against the cancellation of their projects by the present district council. The matter is still pending with the high court.

Meanwhile, some others filed suits in civil courts challenging the validity of new turbine irrigation schemes on the basis of letter issued by the local government secretary to the Rahim Yar Khan DCO in 2005. The letter had declared that these schemes, being out of the devolved functions of the district government, did not fall within the purview of CCB projects according to rules.

The civil court granted status quo in suits that resulted in the stoppage of new turbine irrigation projects.

Faced with an undesirable situation, the district government approached the local government secretary, who issued another letter on May 22, 2006, contravening his previous version that the district government could take up tubewell turbines schemes out of CCB funds.

The secretary placed his interpretation of legal provisions of the Local Government Ordinance without consulting the provincial law department.

After considering the whole gambit of CCBs’ laws, Mianwali District Bar Association president Liaquat Ali Malik advocate said the concept of CCBs was being misused.

He said that projects of huge amount under the garb of CCB schemes were included in the local government budget, although the projects had no public utility or community involvement.

In fact, all turbine projects were a one-man serving schemes. He said that turbine schemes were violative of the basic CCBs law because the irrigation was devolved to the district government under the Local Government Ordinance 2001.

These schemes, he said, had been processed under the district government’s agriculture sector while functions of the devolved agriculture department did not include the irrigation except the farm water management activity.

The intention of the legislature to exclude underground water irrigation from CCBs’ projects was quite obvious because such projects could serve only a few landowners, leaving the community apart.

Punjab Bar Council member Malik Muhammad Akram Awan advocate said that local governments were doling away huge funds of CCBs to influential politicians to carry out schemes for influencing the next general elections.

He criticised the local government secretary for issuing contradictory letters to district governments in respect of inclusion and non-inclusion of turbine irrigation schemes under CCBs’ projects.

The PBC member asserted that the CCB law was clear on the point that turbine irrigation tubewells did not fall within the purview of CCBs because they related to the irrigation, which was not devolved to the district government.

The prevalent uncertainty about these projects may be settled once for all either by the judicial interpretation of the relevant law or by the Punjab government through its law department.

Since huge funds of CCBs are involved, the apex watchdog institution of the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) should take stock of the situation so that the public money could be utilised for the community properly.