PESHAWAR, Jan 26: The Peshawar city district government has received Rs71 million development funds meant for the last financial year, district Naib Nazim Dr Iqbal Khalil told Dawn.

"The district government did not get the development funds last year because of delays caused by technical reasons on the part of the AG office," said the Naib Nazim.

Senior officers of the district government said technically the amount had been released to the district government by the provincial finance department last year, however, it could get hold of it only recently.

"Technically speaking, the amount was released to the district government in the last financial year," said a senior officer, adding that in terms of cash it was just recently that the district government got hold of the 2002-03 financial year's development funds.

The provincial government had distributed a total of Rs867 million among 24 district governments of the province in the 2002-03 financial year for their development schemes.

Funds had been distributed among districts in accordance with their share determined under the Provincial Finance Commission (PFC) award for the 2002-03 fiscal year.

The city district government's share had been calculated at Rs71.48 million. Azam Afridi and Dr Iqbal Khalil, Nazim and Naib Nazim of the city district government, respectively, when contacted told Dawn that the district government received the last financial year's funds only recently.

"After one-year's hectic efforts at last we have got hold of the development funds," said Mr Afridi. Dr Khalil said development schemes which were to be financed from the district's PFC award share, could not be executed due to non-availability of funds.

The district government's inability to get funds affected development activities in the provincial metropolis, where only schemes covered under the Khushal Pakistan Programme (KPP) could be executed during the last financial year.

"Only the KPP-funded schemes were executed last year or those which had been provided funds under different programmes," an official source said and added that as far as executing schemes from the district's own resources was concerned there was no progress on that count.

"We kept shuttling between the AG office and the finance department for more than a year to get the funds transferred to our bank account," the Naib Nazim said and alleged that an AG office clerk created problems in the transfer of funds.

He said another reason for the delay in the transfer of funds was the introduction of a new system in the AG office. "It took us one year to get the relevant code number," said the Naib Nazim.