PESHAWAR, July 28: Women members of Peshawar city district council have attributed the delay in the submission and implementation of development schemes to the late release of funds by the district government.

But the district government officials say the late submission of schemes by the women councillors had slowed down the overall uplift process.

Each of the 24 women councillors of the district council was allocated Rs500,000 for uplift schemes as most of them had come up with small plans. However, three schemes submitted by women councillors had been approved, District Nazim Azam Afridi told Dawn on Monday.

“Women councillors lack decision-making power. Although they attend training workshops, still they are unable to chalk out a development strategy,” a district government official observed.

The district government officials said the development schemes of three women councillors, Safia Naz, Shumaila and Tasleem Suleiman, had been approved.

The women councillors had been asked to identify schemes of women welfare, but they failed to do so. Safia Naz came up with a scheme of streets’ pavement whereas Shumaila and Tasleem Suleiman each submitted a scheme of construction of rooms and provision of laboratory equipment to a girls college.

Other women councillors, including Shamim Qaiser Khan, Tahira Bukhari, Samina Tabassum and Shakira Gul, have also submitted schemes of construction of drains, repair of industrial home, construction of footpaths and purchase of equipment.

The women councillors were allocated Rs500,000 each for the development schemes in the last fiscal year, but the amount was released only recently.

They were also granted Rs300,000 each in the annual budget this year, according to sources.

Shazia Tehmas denied that the delay in the submission of development schemes was not due to the inefficiency of the women councillors or lack of decision-making power on their part. All this happened due to the late release of funds, she added.

Other women councillors claimed that the delay in the submission of schemes occurred due to the rules which were difficult to follow. “We were supposed to work in a group and come up with big schemes, but the women didn’t agree to work together. They harboured personal grudges against each other and thus failed to do the needful,” a women councillor said.