PESHAWAR, Nov 29: In the next local government elections in the NWFP, naib nazims of district, tehsil and town council would be elected by show of hands and not through secret ballot.
The NWFP cabinet on Tuesday approved amendment to sections 42(4) and 69(4) of the Local Government Ordinance-2000. Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani presided over the meeting.
Under the first amendment to the LGO-2000 enforced before 2005 elections, all naib nazims were elected through secret ballot. After the second the amendment approved by the provincial cabinet on Tuesday, “through secret ballot” stands omitted.
Provincial Information Minister Asif Iqbal Daudzai told Dawn that the second amendment was approved to check use of money and malpractices in the upcoming elections for naib nazims.
The cabinet discussed relief activities and the overall plan for rehabilitation and reconstruction of the quake-hit districts, said a handout.
The meeting decided that owners of private houses damaged by the earthquake would be given Rs100,000 to Rs75,000 compensation as announced by the government.
The cabinet directed the Bank of Khyber to be more flexible in clearing compensation cheques. Elected representatives, including union council nazims and MPAs would verify such cases.
It was decided that 1,000 tents would be kept in store for emergency use and would be supplied to an affected area on demand.
Contract-based appointments for managing tent villages was also approved. Earlier the government had ordered deployment of the employees of Afghan Commissionerate for tent villages management.
The cabinet recommended enhancing the capacity of the Havellian tent villages in view of expected mass-scale arrival of people from affected areas.
The cabinet was of the view that schools should not be used for relief activities. It directed the district administrations of affected areas to identify suitable places to be given to government agencies and NGOs for continuing their relief activities.
The handout said that the Federal Relief Commissioner (FRC) was about to provide 300 tarpaulins on a demand from the provincial education department for the colleges in the quake-hit areas.
The cabinet directed the departments concerned to collect details of damages in Swat and other districts and agreed to accommodate all the affected people in the Rehabilitation Centre in Hayatabad, Peshawar.
It also recommended to the FRC to provide 20 thousand ton of wheat, instead of Atta, as its share in the Turkish 50 thousand ton relief.
The meeting was told that the reported number of deaths was 29,360, out of which 21,850 had been registered. Similarly, the reported number of injured people was 37,372, out of which 14,581 were registered. The number of affected houses is reported to be 3,14,740.