PESHAWAR, May 5: The Directorate of Social Welfare and Women Development and the administration of Town-III have locked horns over a building that accommodates some 10 offices and 80 staff of the directorate, sources said.

The Social Welfare and Women Development Complex is located on the University Road.

The Town-III administration had asked the directorate a month ago to vacate the building as it had been allotted to the tehsil municipal administration, the sources said.

The building also houses offices of the provincial council for social welfare, provincial council for rehabilitation of disabled person, a project of women and children development with Unicef, provincial commission for child welfare and development, the National Plan of Action, Women Political School project, skill-optimisation project and centre for the rights of women and children.

At present, the Town-III administration has occupied a portion of the defunct Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) building in Hayatabad and now the TMA planned to shift its offices to the building occupied by the directorate.

The provincial minister for Local Government Sardar Idrees has also asked the directorate to vacate the offices and a letter was issued on April 26..

Sources said that provincial minister for social welfare Hafiz Hashmat and minister for women development Kashif Azam staunchly opposed the evacuation plan.

“Both the ministers were of the view that they were not taken into confidence when the local government decided to allot the building to the Town-III administration.

They said that their officers were also facing a shortage of space but no action should be taken, an official privy to the meeting said.

The directorate had been working in the building since 2002 and it has already handed over some five buildings in Peshawar to the local government functionaries after devolution of powers, an official source said.

The Town-III nazim and naib Nazim could not be reached for their comments.

The directorate had planned to open a women’s hostel in the complex but had instead set up its own offices in the building that was previously occupied by the Directorate of Farm and Water Management.