LB Minister wants provision of civic services transparently
CHITRAL: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa minister for local government, Arshad Ayub Khan has said that tehsil municipal administrations (TMAs) should be self-sustained civic bodies with least dependence on government’s grants ensuring service delivery transparently and to the best of the satisfaction of the people.
Chairing a joint meeting of the chairmen and tehsil municipal officers of all the four TMAs of Lower and Upper Chitral districts here on Friday, he took briefing about the municipal bodies one by one and assessed their respective performance.
Shahzada Amanur Rehman, Syed Farid Jan and Jamshed Ahmed, the tehsil chairmen of Chitral, Drosh and Mulkhow were present on the occasion while MPA from Lower Chitral Fatehul Mulk Ali Nasir and Lower Chitral DC Muhammad Imran Khan were also in attendance.
The minister expressed his concern over the poor financial positions of all the four TMAs where revenues were far below the administrative expenses with a major portion going to the salary of the staff and refueling.
He asked for curtailing the unnecessary expenses and also suggested to fire the redundant employees who absented themselves willfully and were a burden on the TMAs while he also expressed his concern over the large amount being spent on fuelling of the vehicles.
To keep a stern check on the absenteeism and to check the misuse of petrol, the minister ordered to install biometric machine in the offices and installing micro chip with all the TMA vehicles to monitor their movement accurately.
He directed the regional municipal officer of Malakand to carry out audit of the fuel consumed in the TMAs of Chitral and Mastuj through the monitoring and evaluation team of local government department while taking the cognizance of the reported inefficiency of tehsil architect, he ordered his immediate transfer from Chitral.
The minister also took notice of the dual charge of the assistant director of local government in Upper Chitral and the TMO of Mastuj by a single officer since long and ordered the posting of another officer as assistant director in his place.
The minister ordered the municipal officers to consult with the local MPAs while taking important decisions about development projects and implementing them.
The minister came hard on the federal government for denying the rights of the province and the far flung area of Chitral and said that he noticed the efficiency of National Highway Authority was at its lowest ebb here.
He said that all the under-construction roads including Shandur Road, Kalash valley road and Lowari Road had virtually been closed due to the non-allocation of funds and this was a sheer injustice meted out to the people of Chitral and the province.
DC Lower Chitral Muhammad Imran Khan said that he has been extending full scale cooperation and assistance to the TMAs and will continue to do so in future as well.
