CM approves changes in local govt system

DCs to approve schemes, nazim to be called district council head

PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Pervez Khattak here Friday approved the proposal for replacing the name of the district government with district council and naming district nazim as its head.

The approval was accorded in the meeting of a high-powered committee that had prepared the recommendations for the local government, said an official handout.

Minister for Local Government Inayatullah Khan, Minister for Irrigation Sikandar Hayat Sherpao, Minister for Health Shahram Khan Tarakai, advisor to Chief Minister Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani, Chief Secretary Amjad Ali Khan, secretaries for law and local government and others attended the meeting.

“The district nazim will be the chief executive of the district,” the communiqué said, adding, the administrative approval for schemes would be issued by the deputy commissioner. It said the district development committees would be chaired by the respective deputy commissioners for the provincial government-funded schemes. The same procedure would be followed at the tehsil level.

The chief minister approved the district government priority areas under the new guidelines for the district government system throughout the province. He approved the allocation of resources to different sectors under the newly laid down formula.

Education and health will get 20 and 10 percent, respectively, in the district government system.Agriculture, women development and youth/sports would get 15 percent. There will be 50 percent discretionary power that would be used by the district government.

The meeting amended different sections from 11 to 16. The chief minister directed the quarters concerned to move a summary for formal approval of the changes.

He directed outsourcing the sanitation and instructed that if the local government system needs recruitment it would have to get approval from the competent authority at the provincial level under the rules and regulation.It was decided that the district officer Planning and Development will be the secretary of District Development Advisory Committee. Previously, this post was held by assistant director of the local government.

The meeting decided to enhance the fuel allowance for nazim up to 300 litres and allowing different vehicles to the nazims and the employees, etc under the rules.The chief minister scrapped the discretionary power for postings and transfers for all devolved departments. There will be check and balance mechanism and the process would be monitored and the final decision will be taken by the sectreary education.

The provincial health and education departments would prepare a pool of needed employees from where their needs would be fulfilled.

The chief minister said the provincial government would remove the weaknesses in the local government system and there should be no duplication.He called for undertaking the rationalisation process at the district level, ensuring that the ratio is one teacher for 30-40 students throughout the province.