DERA GHAZI KHAN, June 29: The district council passed on Tuesday its deficit budget of Rs2,108.4 million at a meeting held at Jirga hall at Fort Munro, about 85 kilometres from here.

The budget presentation followed a series of protests during one of which people blocked the motorcade of the district Nazim to resent acute shortage of drinking water.

The local tribal residents arranged a series of protests and accordingly barricaded different sections of the Khar-Fort Munro Road to halt the motorcade of Nazim Jamal Leghari and the members coming to attend the meeting.

The protesters burnt tyres and chanted slogan against the Nazim. The Border Military Police failed to control the situation, as the mob refused to listen to the speech of the Nazim. They dispersed after three hours only on the assurance that water would be made available to them. The shopkeepers of Khar and Fort Munro observed complete strike.

The Nazim presented the budget while Javed Iqbal Qaisrani presided over the session, which began at 1.30pm. All officials of the district government, except the police representative and tribal area tehsil Nazim, attended the meeting.

The Nazim said Rs1,559.5 million had been earmarked for non-development expenditure and only Rs548.93 million for development. The provincial government had provided Rs1,328.2 million for contingency and salaries against the district's requirement of Rs1422.5 million.

He claimed that the shortfall in the funds would affect the payment of salaries at the end of the fiscal year. He further told the house that Rs119.6 million had been allocated for citizen community boards and Rs31.8 million for the projects funded by the Punjab government, World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

The district council revised the allocation of Rs17.90 million for the construction of sports complex while for medicines and repayment of health centres, Rs20.2 million had been allocated.

The budget includes Rs94.2 million for current development schemes, Rs9 million for educational institutions (repairs and construction) and Rs27 million for roads. After the speech of the Nazim, Ijaz Khetran of Maqsood Leghari group criticized the budget for its non-development allocation of Rs548.9 million, which, he said, was meagre. He said health and agriculture had been ignored in the budget.