MANSEHRA: Chairmen of the village and neighbourhood councils here on Saturday demanded of the caretaker government to release Rs42 billion development funds earmarked by its predecessor for local governments across the province.

They warned that if their demand wasn’t met, they would stage street protests across the district.

“Almost a year has passed since the local governments were installed in the province but no funds have been provided to them. The Supreme Court chief justice should take a suo motu notice of this matter to order payments by the government,” chairman of the Lassan Thakral village council Malik Mumtaz told a meeting of local body heads here.

Mr Mumtaz said both federal and provincial governments were not sincere about the people’s welfare.

He said if Rs42 billion earmarked by the previous PTI government were released, the work on development projects that had been suspended since last year would resume.

Chairman of the Safada village council Basharat Ali Swati told the meeting that if the development funds were not released within a week, the local body heads would stage street protests against the government across the province.

“Local body elections were held in the province on the orders of the Supreme Court but unfortunately, the successive governments denied development funds and other perks to the elected councils,” he said.

The participants also demanded an inquiry into the alleged corruption in the recent distribution of free flour in the district by the government.

“If the chairman of Mansehra tehsil council makes any attempt to impose a presiding officer of his choice by bulldozing the LG Act, we [local body members] will resist move as majority of the council members wants free and fair elections for the office,” said councillor Nasira Bibi, who was elected on a seat reserved for women.

Ms Bibi said that the Election Commission of Pakistan should hold election to the office of the tehsil council presiding officer in accordance with the LG Act.

UNPAID FOR MONTHS: Contractual teachers of the Girls Degree College, Oghi, haven’t received salary for the last 10 months.

“The government has appointed teachers to the only degree college for girls in the tehsil almost a year ago to address the shortage of faculty members but they are still unpaid,” former councillor of the Oghi union council Mohammad Haroon told reporters on Saturday.

Mr Haroon, who led a group of locals, said that the teachers, who were appointed on the contractual basis and had yet to receive salary, would boycott classes causing a learning loss to students.

“We took up this issue with authorities for action, but to no avail,” he said.

The former councillor said record inflation had hit government employees, who received fixed salaries, really hard and that if the prices of essential goods weren’t controlled, they would quit their jobs.

He said the caretaker chief minister should take notice of the matter and ensure the payment of salaries to the contractual college teachers.

Published in Dawn, May 7th, 2023