UPPER DIR: District election commissioner Amjad Ali has said a voter registration campaign has been launched in Upper Dir which will continue till Feb 8, and urged people to cooperate with the poll teams in registration of women as voters.

Talking to Dawn here, he said the district had been divided into 939 blocks, where 13 assistant registration officers had been appointed. He said various teams were working to collect the data of voters while going door to door.

The election commission official said in the first phase the CNIC numbers of those card holders who names were missing from the voter lists would be registered. He said names of deceased people would be removed from the lists.

After completion of the phase voter lists would be displayed in the 42 display centres set up across the district, he said, adding those who wanted to transfer their vote to another constituency or to other village within the constituency would be facilitated.

Amjad Ali appealed to the people to cooperate with the election commission teams during the campaign. He stressed on registration of women voters as they had the equal rights to cast their vote.

He said all the stakeholders, including political parties, civil society organisations, elders, district administration and mediapersons, must play their role in registration of women as voters.

BUDGET APPROVED: The Upper Dir tehsil council the other day unanimously approved Rs120 million developmental budget for the year 2017-18.

Tehsil nazim Mir Makhzanuddin presented the budget in the budget meeting.

Opposition leader Mohammad Nisar Khan Wardag was absent from the session.

The council was told that Rs31 million had been allocated for water supply schemes and Rs25 million would be spent on municipal services. Similarly, Rs6.2 million had been allocated for beautification of the Dir city.

The tehsil nazim said that 50 per cent of the budget would be spent through the discretionary powers of the tehsil council.

Tehsil councillors from Sheringal and Doog Darra said the contractors didn’t complete development projects in time due to which they were facing difficulties in their respective areas.

The councillors approved the budget by raising their hands in its favour. The tehsil nazim said all the councillors, both from opposition and treasury, would be given equal share in development funds.

Published in Dawn, January 24th, 2018