By Zahiruddin
CHITRAL: The district council Chitral passed the budget of Rs.4213 million for the fiscal year 2018-19 here on Friday which included Rs.3833 million for salary, 166.35 million for non-salary expenses, Rs.14.072 million for district council grants and Rs.200.547 for development projects.
Chaired by its convener Maulana Abdul Shakoor, the budget session continued for three days before its conclusion in which the members of both the treasury and opposition groups expressed their anguish over the inordinate delay in the release of annual development plan (ADP) of 2017 by the provincial government due to which the development projects identified by them could not be started.
Coming hard on the provincial government for the financial mess affecting the district government, they urged upon the government to release the budget of ADP and district council grants for the year in its entirety instead of piecemeal allocations on quarterly basis which created hurdles for them.
The members Maulana Jamshed Ahmed, Rahmat Ghazi Khan, Maulana Abdur Rahman, Abdul Qayum, Muhammad Yaqub, Ghulam Mustafa advocate, Rahmat Elahi, Riaz Ahmed Diwanbaigi and lady member Husool Begum complained that the food department had provided stale wheat to its warehouses in Chitral infested with worms and rendered inconsumable.
They said that the warehouses of the department in all the union councils were full of such kind of wheat which the people dreaded to purchase and they were left with no option but to purchase wheat flour from the market at exorbitant rates.
They also expressed their annoyance over the closure of Lowari tunnel for the public transport for sixteen hours a day without any reason and the passengers were made to wait on both sides of the tunnel for hours while the project had been completed last year and the then prime minister had inaugurated it.
They also criticized the Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organization (PEDO) for the uncalled for load shedding of power in upper Chitral despite the availability of large amount of electricity from the Golen Gol Hydro Power Project.
They said that PEDO has made life a hell for the people of upper Chitral by its load shedding 18 to 20 hours a day despite the incessant supply of electricity to its system from the grid station.
The absence of the different facilities and doctors in the primary healthcare centres situated in different union councils including Khot, Arandu, Mulkhow and Karimabad also came under discussion and asked the government to redress the grievances.
The rising number of suicide cases of young boys and girls in the district was also discussed and demanded its proper study to bring to fore the real cause propelling the extreme steps of the youth while it was also demanded of the police to check diligently each and every case of suicide as in some instances, the young girls have been murdered in the garb of suicide.
District nazim Maghfirat Shah expressed his determination to extend all possible support to Imran Khan by the district government so that Chitral may be converted into a model district in the province which had been badly ignored in the past.
He said that the district government remained crippled as it was divested of both administrative and financial powers by the provincial government by frequent changes in the local government Act 2014 but expressed the hope that the as per manifesto of the party in the general elections, the local bodies will be strengthened and empowered so that they may deliver.
He said that the officers of different devolved departments will face severe actions who absent themselves from the budget session and did not pay heed to the directions issued by the district government.
