KARAK: The Karak district government on Tuesday announced the 2015-16 annual budget with a total outlay of Rs242.12 million.

District nazim Dr Umar Daraz Khattak presented the budget in the District Council here.

In the budget, Rs40.8 million was earmarked for education, Rs4.82 million for roads, Rs20.41 for healthcare, Rs20.41 million for hygiene and Rs10.2 million for agriculture, while Rs60.4 million will be the nazim’s discretionary funds.

The opposition expressed reservation about distribution of development funds among councillors and demanded that the money be given out to the council members equally.

Opposition voices reservation about distribution of development funds

The nazim said he would ensure that all councillors get equal funds for development.

ROAD BLOCKED: The residents of Rehmatabad area in Karak on Tuesday blocked the Karak-Bannu Road for traffic to demand gas supply, drinking water and electricity in their area.

The protesters led by Tasleem Khattak, Gul Hakeem, Sajjad Pervaiz and Malik Aslam Khan marched on Karak-Bannu Road and blocked it at the main bazaar chowk and thus suspending traffic for several hours.

The protesters said gas supply had been suspended to the area for five days forcing the people to use wood as fuel.

They said the supply of drinking water to the area had been suspended for few months to their misery.

The protesters said the people had approached the public health engineering department many times for restoration of water supply but the relevant officials insisted they didn’t have funds to repair water supply machineries.

They said though the area had huge oil and gas royalty for development, the local population had been denied basic facilities exposing the negligence of the elected representatives of the district.

They said unfortunately local women had to fetch water from remote areas for drinking and other household purposes but the relevant authorities were indifferent to the problem.

The assistant commissioner later met protesters and assured them of early resolution of their problem.

Later the protesters reopened the road and dispersed peacefully.

LOW GAS PRESSURE PROTESTED: The residents of Makori and adjacent localities on Tuesday staged a sit-in outside the central processing facility against low gas pressure.

The protest led by Hameedullah, Malik Azizur Rehman and Umar Gul caused suspension of supplies from the facility.

The protesters complained Banda Daud Shah tehsil produced gas in large quantity, which was supplied to different parts of the country, but ironically, the local residents were denied the utility.

They said low gas pressure was not acceptable to the people and therefore, they would continue protesting until corrective steps were taken.

Later, Banda Daud Shah assistant commissioner Nawaz Wazir and tehsil nazim Malik Shaukat Khattak met protesters and promised better gas pressure to them within 24 hours.

The protesters later dispersed causing resumption of supplies from the facility.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2015