CHITRAL: The Chitral district council on Tuesday passed the revised budget of Rs4.69 billion for the current fiscal year in a session held in Booni, the headquarters of the newly-created Upper Chitral district. Convener Maulana Abdul Shakoor chaired the session.

The house unanimously passed the budget without any change soon after it was tabled by district nazim Maghfirat Shah, who in his budget speech came down hard on the provincial government for creating hurdles for the district government by inordinately delaying the release of development funds.

He said as per financial rules, the provincial government was required to release the share of the district in the Provincial Financial Commission award without any further questioning and procedural activity, but in practice, the district government was kept baffled by different tactics for the last four years due to which development works suffered badly.

Mr Shah accused both the provincial and central governments of being not serious in welfare of the people of Chitral, saying even then the district government secured certain accomplishments which would benefit the people of the both the districts.

The district nazim said apart from establishing a congenial environment for development in the area, the district government had formulated a document named as Chitral Growth Strategy for multi-sector development.

The nazim said that the strategy would be implemented once funds were made available for it.

In a unanimously passed resolution, it was demanded of the government to carry on the practice of managing the upcoming Shandur Festival through the district administration of Chitral instead of Gilgit-Baltistan government.

In another resolution, the government was asked to release the promised funds meant for rehabilitation of the infrastructure devastated by the flash floods of 2015, which were pending for approval in the office of deputy commissioner Chitral.

Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2019