RAWALPINDI, Jan 31: Rumpus marred the sixth session of Rawalpindi District Council here on Thursday, as a large number of councillors, throughout the meeting, continued to protest over the indifference of the bureaucracy.

At one stage, Raja Javed Ikhlas, the District Naib Nazim, had to appeal to the members to restore calm.

Taking strong exception to the absence of senior officials from the session, the councillors said this showed that they (officers) were least interested in running the affairs of the district.

“The officials are public servants and they should not try to become their masters,” a councillor remarked.

The session adopted a resolution demanding the presence of district government officials or their representatives in the District Council sessions so that they could directly respond to the councillors’ grievances.

The members also inquired about the implementation of resolutions previously adopted by the council regarding various issues.

Every council session should be informed about the implementation status of various decisions taken by the previous session and the officials defying the orders of the council should be taken to task, Anjum Farooq Piracha said.

Another member Mian Imran Hayat said the local governance system would be unsuccessful if the bureaucracy disobeyed the orders of the elected house.

Several other members regretted that the Union Council memebers were not being given due regard by the district officials. The UCs, they said, were in direct contact with the masses, therefore, they had to face embarrassment in the hands of their electorates.

They also demanded cancellation of the projects being launched under Social Action Program (SAP) and Drought Program, as the UCs were not consulted.

Raja Javed Ikhlas while winding up the debate said the performance of the district government, during the past six months, had not been so bad.

He said the UCs were the basic units and under no circumstances can be overlooked. “All recommendations forwarded by the UCs would be properly accommodated.” He said some of the schemes prepared by the UCs were rejected by the Works and Services department as they were very small and cannot be completed within the stipulated time.

“Instead of small schemes, the UCs should focus on major projects like roads, electrification and construction of schools and colleges,” he further said.

He said the recruitment policy was expected within a few days. He directed the district government departments to forward all development schemes well in time to his secretariat.