Councillors protest Nowshera govt’s apathy

NOWSHERA: The councillors on Monday recorded a strong protest against the district government for its alleged failure to ensure presence of heads of government line departments in the council and resolve other issues.

Speaking at the meeting of the district council members including Qaiser Khan, Hussain Ahmad Khattak, Kamal Noor, Zartaj Afridi, Abdul Rehman, Malik Zahid, Jumma Khan, female members Nousheen Bibi, Naila Naz and others took the district government and convener of the council Asfaq Ahmad to task.

They said the convener failed to run the council properly and establish authority of the house. The members said the district heads of the government departments had no respect for the council and its members and that was why they did not attend its proceedings.

The government and opposition councillors staged a protest in front of the dais of the convener of the house They said that the failure of the district council to take disciplinary action against officers of various government departments were causing embarrassment to the councilors.

The members said no action was taken against the officials of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company for sending inflated bills to consumers. They alleged that principal of the Government High School (Momin Ghari) had awarded the contract for development work in the school to her spouse. Rget demanded investigation into the issue.

The members demanded lifting of the ban on the release of funds from the district sports funds, making functional the monitoring committees, proper disposing of the guts of animals slaughtered by the butchers, complaints of pumping of water into the meat by butchers for weight gain and an end gas loadshedding in the district.

They threatened to quit council if the district government failed to restore their self-respect in the government departments and ensure the presence of the heads of the line departments in the council.

District Nazim Liaqat Khattak rejected the criticism of the district councillors, saying the performance of the district council was satisfactory.