HARIPUR, July 18: The tehsil council on Friday approved Rs74.769m surplus budget of the Haripur Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA) for 2003-4.

Tehsil Councillor Raja Ehtesham pointed out certain anomalies worth millions of rupees in the budget document and termed it luxurious for certain TMA’s officials and peanuts for the poor.

Members Gul Ambreen, Shahida Parveen, Tasneem Kausar, Ghulam Jan, Hanif Awan, Malik Razmat and others supported the views of Raja Ehtesham and said the budget originally prepared by the accounts and finance standing committees of the house had been changed with the one dictated by the bureaucracy.

But when tehsil Nazim Iftikhar Ahmad Khan assured that discrepancies if found in the budget and enhancement of development funds for the members would be removed, the house unanimously okayed the total outlay of Rs74.769m.

An amount of Rs72.494 million was estimated as total expenditures against the total outlay of Rs74.769 million for the year 2003-4 while the TMA would have Rs2.275m as surplus amount.

Out of the total expenditures, Rs46.664m was allocated for salaries and municipal services, Rs25.828m for the development schemes, which, according to the tehsil Nazim, constituted 35 per cent of the total budget.

From the total uplift budget, Naib Nazims of all the 37 UCs would receive Rs350,000 each, women councillors would get Rs250,000, labourers and peasants Rs200,000, minority members Rs150,000 each, tehsil Nazim Rs800,000 and tehsil Naib Nazim Rs500,000.

A total of Rs8.5m was earmarked for the ongoing scheme, Rs6.4m for the municipal services, Rs2.4m for woman development, Rs300,000 for the welfare of peasants and workers, and Rs200,000m for minorities uplift.