PESHAWAR, 9 Jan: The women (district) councillors, who could be effective members of the district council, are handicapped by a complicated process of responsibilities and duties enshrined in the local bodies ordinance.

When they ask for any development scheme or put up any proposal in the district council, these are not entertained due to the complicated funds distribution process and technicalities which hinder the execution of schemes.

Shazia Tehmas, a district councillor, said the women councillors were not able to do something concrete in women development sector because of some hurdles.

“Some of the district councillors were allocated Rs500,000 but they had not utilised the amount for development work in the specified period,” Shazia Tehmas said.

The district council demands that the women councillors collectively propose two or three collective schemes in the council. This is a major hurdle which is faced by them.

“The women district councillors have not come up with one such scheme proposed collectively by them because of the disagreement among them on one proposition,” she added.

They are not even briefed about the hindrances involved in the execution of the schemes put forward by them and are advised to devise collective and executable schemes. Ostensibly it sounds well, but practically it is impossible to execute as every union council is faced with different problems. The problems vary from place to place.

It is also illogical to rally all the councillors on one issue or a scheme, because every union council has its own priorities as regards to problems. The prevalent practice has resulted into the non-execution of big development projects.

The local government system has some built-in flaws and is not running smoothly as the budget is not utilised equally in different union councils. A few days ago, an adjournment motion on reconstructing and reforming the Local Bodies system was initiated in the NWFP Assembly. Some members of the assembly criticised the local government system for its imbalances, such as, the Nazim was enjoying all the powers and the councillors didn’t have much powers. The amount allocated for the developmental schemes is not sufficient.