LAHORE, June 21: District Nazim Mian Amer Mahmood has said that the entire Rs250 million allocated for development through community participation were lying unutilized with the City District Government.

Talking to the people here on Saturday, the district Nazim said that the unutilized funds constituted 25 per cent of the development budget of the CDG. The funds had been set aside under the provisions of the Punjab Local Government Ordinance for utilization through the citizens community boards.

The boards were required to provide 20 per cent of the development funds for the projects proposed to be completed with community participation. The remaining 80 per cent was to be provided from the funds allocated for the purpose.

He said that the funds had been left unutilized because the citizens community boards required to facilitate community participation in development had not been constituted and registered so far.

Rules and regulations for the constitution of the boards had been formulated and the CDG Community Development Department awaited applications for the registration of the same.

He said that the public representatives, politicians and government servants could not hold offices in the citizens community boards which were required to be non-political.

Only the civilians with good reputation could become members and office-bearers of the boards proposed to be created for ensuring community participation in development.