THATTA, May 21: District Council Thatta passed its revised budget of Rs1,851.053 million for 2006-07, on Monday under the chairmanship of Naib Nazim, Iqbal Khan Chandio. Councillor Ms Hamida Qureshi presented the budget.

Zila Nazim Syed Shafqat Shah Shirazi told the house that it was being presented to overcome the shortfall of Rs110 million in the head of salaries payable to employees and officials of the education department and to retrenched employees of the Thatta Sugar Mill, recently absorbed in the district health and education departments under the Sindh Local Government Ordinance 2001.

He said completion of ongoing development schemes was top priority of the district government for which Rs60 million had been earmarked. This amount will be managed by deducting non-development expenses.

He said a total of Rs1,383.084 million had been earmarked for the salaries of 10 departments, from the DCO to the EDO agriculture and miscellaneous expenses, while Rs402.969 million for the Annual Development Programme, and Rs65 million for additional development schemes.

The revised budget was unanimously passed within 10 minutes without a debate.