LG reps warn of protest if funds not released

MANSEHRA: The chairmen of village and neighbourhood councils on Monday warned the government to stage a sit-in in Peshawar if development funds and the honorarium of Local Governments were not released before the start of the next fiscal year.

“The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government in its meeting held with the Provincial Action Council had accepted all our demands, but no practical measures have been put in place so far,” Basharat Ali Swati, the general secretary of Chairmen Ittehad Council, told a presser here.

Flanked by other members of the body, he said that a meeting of village and neighbourhood councils’ chairmen from across the district was held earlier in the day which passed a unanimous resolution demanding an immediate release of developed funds, honorariums and office rents and utility bills.

“The chairmen of village and neighbourhood councils across Hazara division had taken the oath of their respective offices in March 2022 but are still without rights enshrined in Local Government Act (Amended) 2013,” Swati said.

He said that the local governments were yet to take off as civic agencies as elections of the presiding officers of the Tehsil councils couldn’t be held even during the last two consecutive years.

“Not a single session of these councils could be held so far and the provincial government has been approving budgets on its own without taking tehsil chairmen and members into confidence,” Swati said.

He said that chairmen also demanded that the government hold elections of the tehsil council’s presiding officers so that those councils could approve the next fiscal year’s budgets.“The president of Provincial Action Council of Local Governments Hamayatullah Mayar is in contact with us, and chairmen of village and neighbourhood councils across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and will soon announce the schedule to stage a sit-in in Peshawar to force the government to take immediate action on our demands,” Swati said.