TOBA TEK SINGH, June 29: The district council succeeded in getting approved unanimously its annual budget for the year 2006-07 in its meeting which was presided over by District Naib Nazim Chaudhry Sultan Ahmed here on Thursday.

This is a unique year in which the opposition has not resorted to walkout from the budget session and instead extended its cooperation with treasury benches.

A source disclosed that the district nazim group had agreed to provide Rs3 million development grant to every district council member so that the opposition could not create any hurdle in the budget approval.

Presenting the budget, District Nazim Chaudhry Abdul Sattar informed the house that the expected income from federal and provincial governments’ grants as well as from local sources would be Rs2,306.42 million while same expenditures would be made next year.

He said that 70 per cent of the budget would be spent on education sector while 14 per cent had been allocated for health sector, five per cent for agriculture sector and 11 per cent for works and schemes of other departments.

At least Rs600,000 had been allocated for scholarships to students and Rs500,000 for the needy and deserving students. While a sum of Rs0.5 million had been set aside for delivering sewing machines among widows and the poor women and Rs1.6 million for tree plantation on highways, he said.

The district nazim said that Rs524 million had been allocated for proposed development schemes to be executed by citizen community boards while Rs102 million would be spent on the construction and repair of roads and Rs12 million on electrification of villages in the district.

It had also been decided to continue the adult literacy programme in Kamalia tehsil while all 124 literacy centres would continue during the next financial year.

He further said that Rs3.15 million would be incurred on the setting up of an agricultural biological laboratory at the district headquarters.