MARDAN: The Mardan city council on Monday approved by a majority vote the surplus budget of over Rs1.7 billion for the ongoing financial year 2023-24.

The budget was presented by mayor Himayatullah Mayar during the budget session of the council the other day.

The meeting held in the City Council Hall was chaired by presiding officer Babar Khan.

The house strongly condemned the explosion in Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl’s political gathering in Bajaur tribal district and expressed anguish on the loss of precious lives there.

The councillors, including Qari Junaid, Naveed Ahmed, Rahim Shah, Mohammad Arsalan Khan, Alamgir Khan and others, demanded an increase in the allocation for installation and repair of streetlights.

They also highlighted the problems of their respective areas and demanded their early resolution.

On the occasion, Himayatullah Mayar said that the expenditure of the city council was estimated at Rs1.69 billion. He said the council was expected to save over 16.6 million at the end of the year.

He welcomed the suggestions of the members and promised including them in the budget. He said that development funds would be spent equally in all the union councils. He said that work was going on many projects in the Mardan tehsil.

Mr Mayar said that under the Asian Development Bank, work was underway on a water treatment plant at a cost of Rs1.5 billion, while Rs4.5 billion were being spent on a garbage disposal plant.

Similarly, he said an amount of Rs58 million would be spent on construction of greenbelts and tree plantation.

Mr Mayar strongly condemned the Bajaur blast and demanded that the elements responsible for the gory incident should be brought to justice.

He said that the recent wave of terrorism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was worrisome and that the federal and provincial governments should deal with the menace sternly.

Later, the council members staged a demonstration to condemn the Bajaur blast.

Published in Dawn, Aug 1st, 2023