SUKKUR, June 30: The district council here on Friday passed the budget of over Rs2.28 billion for the fiscal 2006-07. District Nazim Syed Nasir Hussain Shah presented the budget before at the council on Thursday amid uproar from Awam Dost Panel members.

The nazim said in his speech at the special budget session attended by all nazims and council members that a tranche of Rs1,748.973 million would come from the Provincial Finance Commission (PFC).

According to him, the expenditures for the year were estimated at Rs2,280,181,000. He therefore expected a net saving of Rs0.527 million.

Rs1,224.099 billion would be spent on paying salaries followed by Rs327.640 million to be spent on ADP schemes and Rs171.683 million on National Programme for Improvement of Watercours-es, he informed.

Mr Shah said that development schemes included electrification and gas supply to several villages at a cost of Rs20 million.

The budget figures showed a saving of Rs22.429 million from Citizens Community Board (CCB) funds, which could not be utilized from 2002-03 to 2005-06, he said.

He said that his government focussed on education and would provide special funds to build buildings for the shelter-less schools and additional rooms for middle and high schools, besides completing a Cadet College Project at Sangi.

The nazim said that the district was trying to upgrade Government Girls Degree College, Sukkur to a women’s university. Health and agriculture sectors would receive special attention during the next period and the cattle pens would be shifted to the newly-built Cattle Colony, he added.

He hinted at shifting Food Grain Market to Golimar area to end congestion in the city and spoke about a mega project Urban Drainage Scheme Phase-IV for which the federal government had allocated Rs474.227 million and another Rs573.926 million mega project, Urban Water Supply Filtration Scheme, which would resolve the city’s two nagging problems.

The district had sent proposal for another project for a Water Filter Plant in Rohri to the federal government. The project was estimated to cost Rs148.910 million, Mr Shah said.

The session was presided over by convener and district naib nazim, Abdullah Ghumro.