PESHAWAR, Dec 12: A proposal is under consideration to hand over the district transport authority (DTA) from the nazims to district coordination officers (DCOs), sources said.

The summary would soon be put up before NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani as presently the district transport authority was under the district nazims which politicized the transport authority and was a hurdle to any change, the sources said.

The DTAs were not functioning effectively owing to lack of coordination, monitoring and communication with the provincial transport authority. Commissioners used to run the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) as chairmen at divisional-level, but after the introduction of power devolution plan, the RTAs were replaced by the district transport authority (DTA).

"It is not provided under the Local Government Ordinance, 2001, that district nazims should be the chairmen of the DTAs and it is not a compulsion under the LGO," said an official.

The ordinance only says to devolve transport as a district department but does not make it an obligation to make district nazims as chairmen of the transport authority.

According to the Motor Vehicle Ordinance, 1965, amended in 2001 its section 46 states that an executive order will be issued to tell about the composition of the DTA. Other provinces had notified that the DCOs would be chairmen of the DTAs, but the NWFP government notified district nazims as chairmen in the 24 districts of the province, the sources said.

The composition of the DTA in the NWFP is that district nazim works as its chairman and nominates two members, who are transporters and workers, whereas in other provinces the DTA is run by a DCO and other government officers as its two members.

Many problems were surfacing owing the politicised nature of the DTAs in the NWFP, an official of the department concerned said. Being a politician, a district nazim would not do anything to displease transporters.

Most of the district nazims were also not keen about provincial government's revenue as they were only concerned about their respective districts. "Some of the districts were not following the provincial government fare table," the official said.

The DTAs were politicized and there was no uniformity as in many districts the district nazims were affiliated with different political parties and their priorities were also different.