HARIPUR, May 25: Opposition members in tehsil council walked out of the council's session on Monday in protest against non-provision of development funds to them.

The session, presided over by convener Mohammad Amin Badhora, was convened to discuss the recommendations forwarded by House's committees, besides endorsing the proceeding of previous session.

However, an opposition member, Javed Akhtar Khan, soon after recitation from the Holy Quran, on a point of order said that since the minutes of previous were distributed in the current meeting, so the members should be given time to study them.

He objected to the deletion of development schemes of 14 members and depriving them of the funds approved in the budget for 2003-4. However, the convener refused to give time to the members, upon which the opposition benches boycotted the session and staged a walkout.

They said all the members had submitted their development schemes with the department concerned of the TMA, but the schemes recommended by the 14 opposition members were deleted from the budgetary document depriving them of their legal right.

They said that the tehsil nazim had unlawfully doubled the development funds for his supporters in the House without getting the revised budgetary document approved from the council. The tehsil council had passed Rs17.3 million for the new schemes and Rs8.5 millions for the ongoing schemes in June 2003.