LAHORE, Sept 13: The Punjab local government department has completed all formalities for amending rules framed for the working of citizens community boards (CCBs) and is preparing to send them to the chief minister for final approval. Officials said on Thursday the amendments were sent by the National Reconstruction Bureau around six months ago. The amendments would not bring about any major change in the existing operational system of the CCBs.

They said the amendments had been circulated for eliciting public opinion and objections, and a summary for their approval would soon be sent to the chief minister.

The CCBs are required to be set up in every local area under the local government ordinance. These comprise non-elected citizens for energising community for development and improvement in service delivery through voluntary and self-help based initiatives.

All local councils are required to allocate not less than 25 per cent of their annual development budget for the CCBs. Every CCB is required to contribute 20 per cent of the total of a project, getting the remaining 80 per cent from the local council concerned. The ratio was 50-50 earlier.

According to the officials, a total of 37,057 CCBs had been formed in the country by March this year. Of them 18,128 were in Punjab, 10,759 in the NWFP, 6,099 in Sindh and 2,071 in Balochistan.

A total of Rs3,747.87 million had been spent on the schemes initiated by the CCBs all over the country. The CCBs’ contribution was Rs884.01 million whereas the remaining Rs2,863.86 million were given by the district governments.

In addition, Rs958 million were also contributed by the tehsils or towns in the CCBs’ schemes by June last year.