SIALKOT, Oct 5: Speakers at a moot on public participation in local governments have observed that Citizen Community Boards (CCBs) in Sialkot district’s rural areas have failed to deliver and meet the expectations of the masses and there was a dire need to revamp them.

Addressing a session on ‘Aap Aur Hukoomat’ organised by the Devolution Trust for Community Empowerment (DTCE) here on Thursday, they observed that CCBs would not serve the purpose until their formation and functioning were not improved.

They also urged the DTCE to expedite its endeavours to impart Project Cycle Management training to CCBs across the district and take some effective steps to reduce capacity-building gap and bringing betterment in the functioning of the CCBs.

They highlighted various features of the organisational efforts including raising awareness about Punjab Local Government Ordinance 2001, capacity-building of elected representatives and officials of the Local Government department, provision of opportunities to the masses to hold their elected representatives accountable for their performance and evolve a model of transparent, efficient and accountable government at the local level.

Speaking on the occasion, Prof. Arshad Mirza, the president of Baidarie, an NGO, said elected representatives should visit their constituencies to get first hand knowledge of public grievances. He said people in rural areas wanted safe drinking water, effective drainage system, good means of transportation and other amenities, but members of the district assembly seemed ignorant of such pubic demands.

He asked them to have proper data and planning to help solve public grievances and discretionary allocation of funds would serve no purpose except adding to the deprivation and frustration of the people.

Prof. Arshad Mirza was also highly critical of the formation and functioning of monitoring committees at the union, tehsil and district tiers.

He said only strict adherence to principles guaranteed strengthening and success of any system and added that execution of powers by local governments required strict monitoring and internal checks and balances.

He regretted that formation of monitoring committees at all the three tiers in the district was not transparent as they had been formed without keeping in view the task related qualification, skill, expertise and experience of its members. He lamented that some individuals had been made members of several committees and added that civil society had totally been ignored in formation of such committees.

Prof. Arshad Mirza urged the district government to take lead in rectifying and reconstituting the monitoring committees to allow utilisation of services of the most competent persons in their relevant fields.

Hina Noureen, Baidarie women wing’s president, stressed vitality of the role of women in advancement of mainstream development process.

She said whenever provided an opportunity, women had proved to be worthy of carrying forward the development process with optimum efficiency. She cited example of women’s CCB ‘Kalian’ in UC Roras, which had successfully installed 100 bio-sand filters to provide safe drinking water to people at minimal cost.

Sialkot DCO Capt (r) Atta Muhammad Khan, District Naib Nazim Rana Ejaz Ahmad, Sambrial Tehsil Nazim Nasir Mehmood Ghuman, Sialkot EDO (Community Development) Dr Javaid Gill, TV anchor Tauseeq Haider, Uggoki UC Nazim Khalid Waseem, Punjab PML Youth Wing Coordinator Dr Naseem Shakeel and others spoke on the occasion.