LAYYAH: With the creation of 11 union councils in the district, the government has slashed the monthly salary budget of the staff.

The staff of these union councils will get salary but not other emoluments which had earlier been offered to them. Each union council has a five-member staff and the government is paying Rs109,000 a month in salaries and other expenditure head but the budget has been slashed and each union council has now got Rs84,000.

No fund has been allocated for the purchase of furniture and construction of new buildings.

The Election Commission of Pakistan has constituted 11 new UCs after delimitation of constituencies.

In 1962, 25 union councils were established when Layyah was a tehsil of Muzaffargarh. More UCs were created in 1982-83 when Layyah became a district and it had a total of 38 UCs. In 2001, 44 UCs were established in the district under the local government system.

The ECP carried out delimitation in 2015 and 11 new union councils were created. These are: Sonhara Wasaswa, Kot Sultan Rural, 393/TDA Gola Adda, Peer Jaggi Sharif and Sumra Nashaib (Layyah tehsil) and Rajan Shah, 110TDA, 112Ml, 93ML and Union Council Roshan Shah in Karor tehsil. In Choubara tehsil, one union council 452 TDA was created. The six previous urban UCs were declared municipal committees.

In the floods of 2010, five UCs of Bhakkri Ahmad Khan, Jakharr, Bait Wasawas Shumali and Warha Serha were re-built with the funds provided by the UNDP.

FACTORIES SEALED: A district administration team on Friday raided three factories and sealed these for violations especially of the Pure Food Act.

The team headed by DCO Rana Gulzar Ahmad raided Al Noor Paper Factory where five machines were used to pack potato chips in the wrapper of known brand. The team arrested Muhammad Akram and Muhammad Shahid, the operators of the machines.

The team also raided Abid Dairies where butter and butter oil were being produced with animal fat. It recovered 1,035 kilogram butter. A case was registered against factory owner Abid Ali Gujjar.

The team raided Hanif Milk Cream Factory where milk cream was being produced with animal fat and arrested Muhammad Hanif, the owner of the factory.

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2016