MINGORA, April 19: Swat Nazim Dr Mehboobur Rehman has taken a strong notice of the presence of ghost schools in the district and termed it a negligence on the part of the education department authorities.

He asked the officers concerned to fill all the vacancies in schools and ensure regular attendance of the staff.

Speaking on the second day of the monthly meeting of the district council Swat at the conference hall here on Thursday, the Nazim said that to compete with the developed nations we had to concentrate on imparting quality education.

He said out of total annual budget of Rs1 billion, the district government was spending Rs7 million on education and even then the quality of education was falling day by day.

He said further negligence could not be tolerated and those failed to fulfil their responsibilities would be punished accordingly.

Earlier, the Nazim union council Qambar, Fazal Hayat Chitan, raised the issue of allocating funds to the union councils and moved a resolution in this regard, which was unanimously adopted.

A woman councillor Ayesha Sohrab also moved a resolution seeking medical treatment on government expenses for another woman councillor, Shehnaz, who is said to have been suffering from kidney trouble.

The convener, Nisar Khan, adjourned the meeting till Saturday next.