KOHAT, Oct 8: The Devolution Trust for Community Empowerment should ban participation of government servants in citizens community boards, speakers at a forum held here on Sunday demanded.

The forum was held by the Kohat Bar Association and press club.

Councillor Musarat Shafi and chairman of a citizens’ board Alam Khan complained that all funds were being allocated to union council nazims by the district nazim in violation of the rules.

They demanded that a mechanism be devised so that the funds reached the grass-root level for development in the rural areas.

They said that the funds set aside for the boards were so meagre that two or three of them had to be merged to complete a project.

They said most of the boards in the rural areas comprised schoolteachers as other people were not aware of their rights. The practise should be checked, they said.

District Social Welfare Officer Shazia Khattak said the CCB rules were silent about the involvement of government servants in development activities.

She said the funds were very small and all the CCBs had to be approved by the district government, which was resulting in registration of the boards of nazims and councillors.

She said several departments were involved in the process, therefore people were facing problems.

She suggested that the DTCE should introduce one-window facility for the CCBs.

Chairman of a CCB, Shahabullah Shah, walked out from the function in protest against alleged misuse of power by nazims.

District Bar Association President Abdur Rauf said the government had lifted the ban on the formation of CCBs in Parshai area. He alleged that the bureaucracy wanted the local government system to fail.

The participants demanded end to end the hold of a few families and nazims on the CCBs and independent efforts for fund raising.