CHITRAL, Feb 20: The annual budget of Chitral district council for the year 2005-06 was presented in the house by District Nazim Haji Maghfirat Shah here on Monday. The total volume of the budget is Rs693.3 million, out of which Rs333.4 million has been earmarked for current expenditures. The rest of the budget pertains to development plans. Discussion on the budget proposals will commence on Tuesday.

The session was presided over by the council’s convener Sultan Shah. The naizm in his budget speech said the allocation made by the provincial finance commission was too meagre to meet the demands of the district which was the largest district (area-wise) of the province. The nazim said the provincial government had decided to allocate grant to the district government for which taxes must be levied in different sectors by the house.

Mr Shah called upon the provincial government to favour the district to bring at par with the developed areas of the country. He stressed the house that they should help themselves to drive the population out of poverty and backwardness.

The house members criticized the works and services department for the alleged misappropriation of Rs7 million, allocated by the provincial government last year for the repair and maintenance of roads and held the deputy director of the department and DCO responsible for the same.

Abdul Wali Khan, advocate, targeted the irrigation department and alleged that due to negligence of its executive engineer the irrigation schemes in the district had been failed. He alleged that the officer was using the official vehicle in Peshawar and was drawing Rs80,000 from the office as fuel charges.

The session also adopted a resolution condemning the publication of blasphemous cartoons in some European newspapers.