NAROWAL: The district council on Tuesday unanimously approved Rs551.363 million budget for the fiscal year 2017-18.

The budget session of the district council was held under vice-chairman Shahzad Munir, while the chairman, Ahmad Iqbal, presented the budget that was unanimously approved by the house.

In the budget proposals, Rs160.934m were allocated for the salary of government servants, Rs20m for the pension of retired employees and Rs121.1m for contingency expenditures.

Similarly, Rs320.83m are earmarked for development projects.

Addressing the budget session, Mr Iqbal said making the district council financially autonomous would be his top priority.

He pledged early execution of development projects, adding that he would try his best to provide funds to every council member on equal basis so that uplift schemes could be launched in every union council.

He also offered condolence on the death of police sub inspector Zia Ullah who was recently martyred by dacoits.

The house passed a resolution to upgrade Bara Manga Government Middle School to high school and to rename it as Government Zia Ullah High School.

The meeting was also attended by Chief Officer Riaz Gondal, besides district officers (DOs) of finance, regulations and buildings.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2017