MUZAFFARABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas on Friday said his government would hold the local body (LB) polls in accordance with the direction of the AJK Supreme Court.

He was chairing a high-level meeting of the AJK local government and Rural development (LG&RD) department on Sunday.

The meeting, which was attended by cabinet member Khawaja Farooq Ahmed and other officers concerned, reviewed the financial and physical targets against the department’s allocated budget of Rs2.8 billion.

The meeting reviewed the ongoing development activities in 33 constituencies in the AJK territory and 12 constituencies in Pakistan, reserved for the Kashmiri refugees.

It was told that release of funds for some constituencies had been held in abeyance due to non-provision of [the list of] schemes by the MLAs concerned in time.

Reviews local government and rural development department’s financial and physical targets

On this, the prime minister directed the department to immediately approach such MLAs and collect their schemes so as to ensure disbursement of allocated budget before the close of the ongoing fiscal year.

The prime minister also underscored the need for conforming the LG&RD department to the demands of the modern era to prove its efficacy and spiritedness.

By taking practical steps to employ the latest technology, the department can smoothly and swiftly address the basic needs and problems of the people, he maintained.

The premier noted that garbage disposal and cleanliness had become an alarming issue in AJK’s major cities and towns in the absence of the solid waste management system and asked the officials to do the requisite planning to recycle and dispose of garbage at the earliest possible time.

He particularly stressed that the latest machinery should be purchased for cleanliness in Muzaffarabad so that it wore the look of a dirt-free city, thus matching the standard of a capital.

He also directed the department to ensure thatcomputeriseddeath and birth certificates were issued to people all across the state.

He asked them to meet development targets before the end of the financial year and warned that no laxity ornegligence would be tolerated in this regard.

Similarly, he made it clear that no compromise should be made on the quality and specifications of development projects under the LG&RD department.

Mr Ilyas stressed that the LG&RD department should strengthen its bondage with the people and win their trust because it had a key role in providing basic amenities to them.

He said thePTI government was committed to devolving powers to the grassroots level and wanted to ensure that the LG&RD department funds were expended through the LB institutions.

He recalled that holding of LB polls was an important part of PTI’s election manifesto and since the [AJK] Supreme Court had also fixed a timeframe for the polls the government would leave no stone unturned to hold the polls before that deadline.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2022