LG representatives demanded immediate release of uplift funds
PESHAWAR
Local government representatives on Monday announced that they will stage a ‘sit-in’ outside Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Caretaker Chief Minister House on December 19 to demand release of developmental and non-developmental funds to village, neighborhood and tehsil councils across the province.
Addressing a press conference at the Peshawar Press Club (PPC), the president of tehsil council chairmen and mayor Mardan city council Hamayat Ullah Mayor said that two years have passed since local governments were installed in the province, but they are still deprived of rightful funds and powers.
He said that local body representatives are unable to solve the grassroot level problems of the community as there are no funds with them.
“The elected local bodies have not received a single rupee of funds, due to lack of funds, the representatives across the province are facing difficulties in running the administrative affairs,” he said.
Flanked by a group of local government representatives across the province, Himayat Ullah Mayor said that unfortunately the Peshawar High Court (PHC) has also referred the matter pertaining to funds and powers to the next elected Provincial Assembly.
The responsibilities of the elected governments and elected local bodies are increasing, but they have been deliberately kept powerless, he said and added that local body representatives of the province have no other option to sit-in a protest camp outside provincial caretaker CM House force the government to bring an ordinance to restore the powers of local bodies and provide them with adequate developmental and non-developmental funds.
He said that the former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government during its tenure amended the Local Government Act 2019 and provided funds and powers to the elected local councils. However, spoiled two years in implementing the law pertaining to local body rights and powers, he said.
The elected local body representatives across the province will stage a sit-in outside the KP CM House for their rights on December 19 , Himayat Ullah Mayor added.
Tehsil Chairmen Upper Dir, Lucky Marwat and Chairmen Village Councils Tarkha Taimur Kamal, Akbarpura Malik Qasim and dozens of other villages were also present on the occasion and spoke about the non-release of funds in their respective councils.
They said people’s confidence in the local body system has lost and they have now become fed-up with the system.
