August 14, 2008	Thursday	Sha'aban 11, 1429

MIRPURKHAS, Aug 13: An inquiry officer appointed by the Provincial Local Government Commission arrived here on Wednesday to launch probe into a tug-of-war over budget allocations between District Nazim Dr Sughra Junejo and DCO Abdul Rahim Soomro. The inquiry officer Nayyar Iqbal Siddique Karachi had been ordered to complete his probe and submit a report within two days.

Mr Siddiqui held meetings with district nazim, the DCO and the EDO of community development, Syed Zakir Ali Shah, who was presently looking after affairs of EDO finance and sought their views on budget allocations and its preparation after checking official documents of the budget.

The DCO had released salary and non-salary components of the budget a few days ago but withheld budget for development schemes. Dr Sughra told the official that the district council had unanimously passed the budget, which had allocated equal number of development schemes to each union council nazim of the district.

She said that she had gone through the official procedure for the release of budget. But, the DCO had not yet released budget for development schemes, which was delaying start of work on development schemes, she added.

The DCO said that he would not release budget for development schemes without completing legal formalities. He was working in accordance with Sindh government rules and had apprised the chief secretary about preparation of budget and its approval, he said.—Correspondent