PESHAWAR, Aug 2: The NWFP government has reversed its decision of handing over administrative control of the local area authorities from Local Government and Rural Development Department (LG&RDD) to the Housing Department.

Official sources told Dawn that the provincial government took the decision on July 27 and reversed the July 14 notification and kept the administrative control of LG&RDD intact over local area authorities including the City Development and Municipal Department (CD&MD) and the Galyat Development Authority (GDA).

The NWFP chief minister, through an earlier notification, had transferred the administrative control of all the local area authorities from the LG&RDD to the Housing Department under Rule-3 of the NWFP Rules of Business, 1985.

The sources said that the notification relating to the shifting of the administrative control of local area authorities was issued by Housing Department instead of the Establishment Department. The LG&RDD, the sources said, had pleaded that housing, urban and physical planning were devolved departments and covered under the first schedule of the Local Government Ordinance LGO-2001 and shifting of such authorities to the Housing Department would create many legal implications.

The department argued that the mandate of the local area authorities was to execute projects relating to town development, to be implemented by district governments, thus, these bodies ultimately came within the ambit of districts.

Previously, the local area authorities had been operating under the administrative control of housing and physical planning department that was abolished under the restructuring plan of government departments.

Following the restructuring of departments, administrative control of local area authorities was shifted to LG&RDD, which was still maintained by the department.

The MMA government had re-established the housing department on Nov 1, 2004, to execute housing related projects in the province and since then the transfer of administrative control of local area authorities had remained under discussion.

The NWFP Housing Department wanted to get the administrative control of these authorities for implementing housing projects as envisaged under the National Housing Policy 2001.

Though the Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani had issued the notification, reservation and legal issues raised by the LG&RDD subsequently prompted the government to withdraw the previous notification, the sources maintained.