Peasant, youth councillors threaten agitation in Lakki

LAKKI MARWAT: The peasant and youth councillors have threatened to launch agitation against the lack of seriousness on part of provincial government to devolve powers and resources at the grassroots level.

At a meeting held at the district headquarters complex Tajazai on Tuesday, they said that the powerless local bodies representatives would be unable to resolve the problems faced by people. “The claims of the provincial government that powers have been devolved to the local governments are not true,” said one of the councilors.

Noted among the participants were peasant councillors’ union president Usmanullah, youth councillors’ union president Maulana Ikramullah, Gulfraz, Sajjad, Kifayatullah, Fareed Khan and Raza Khan.

The councillors said that the local government system was introduced in haste and having a lot of lacunas, it was not capable of bringing any change at the grassroots level in its present form.

They said that the local government representatives had no knowledge about the role, responsibilities and powers as the provincial government had not arranged training sessions for them so far. They asked the government to provide salaries equal to the rank of BPS-12 to the peasant and youth councillors.