PESHAWAR, Dec 28: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Friday announced administrative arrangements for the enforcement of the provincial Local Government Act, 2012, from January 1, 2013.

Under the arrangements announced in a handout issued here, the district setup of government departments will be separated from local government institutions established under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Ordinance, 2001, and will be realigned with their administrative departments from the start of the next year.

Also, all posts of executive district officers will be abolished and the current district coordination officers in 25 districts will be asked to act as deputy commissioners.

In absence of the elected local councils in the province, the deputy commissioners will hold the additional charge of the administrators of the respective district councils until further orders.

According to the handout, the functions of erstwhile DCO (revenue and estate) are integrated in the office of deputy commissioner with the provision of additional deputy commissioner in each district.

“The sub-divisional setup of deputy district officers (revenue) and deputy district officers (judicial) is replaced with assistant commissioners and additional assistant commissioners. The Board of Revenue will process relocating the functions of collector and assistant collector in the office of deputy commissioners and assistant commissioners in accordance with the new administrative setup.”

Also, each district will be provided a district officer (finance and planning), a planning officer, a finance officer and a secretary district public safety commission, while the positions of assistant coordination officer, human resource development officer and deputy district officer (finance) will stand abolished.

With the abolition of the EDO office, the elementary and secondary education department at district level will be re-organised under district education officers separately for men and women assisted by deputy district education officers (male and female) and sub divisional education officers.

Similarly, the health department at district level is to be re-organised under district health officers assisted by deputy district health officers and coordinators.

Under Section 224 of the local government act 2012, the local government and rural development department will notify constitution of each local council and make transitional interim arrangement/management.

The agriculture department at district level will also be re-organised. Agriculture (extension) will be manned by district director, subject matter specialists, agriculture officers, plant protection officers, assistant horticulture officers and assistant agronomists.The livestock & dairy development (extension) will have district director, senior veterinary officers and veterinary officers. On-farm water management will have district directors, district officers and water management officers.

Soil conservation will have district officers (soil conservation) and soil conservation assistants.

The public health engineering department and communication and works department will continue with their existing organisational hierarchy at the sub-divisional, district and regional level.

Account-IV modality for transfer of funds to districts will remain operational with deputy commissioners as principal accounting officer for account-iv and chairman of the district development committee of their respective districts. The account-IV related to the funds utilised by the district government. in addition to oversight of the accounting aspects of the reorganisation, the finance department will notify the deletion of existing posts and creation of replacements as per requirements of government departments, and the commissioner shall oversee transition, facilitate government departments, coordinate relocation of functions and ensure continuation of services in their respective divisions.