Rawalpind: No new development schemes: Rs 7.8bn CDGR budget for fiscal 2009-10

[Naveed Yaseen]

* Overwhelming majority approves budget without discussion amid pandemonium by opposition

By Aamir Yasin

RAWALPINDI: The City District Council on Tuesday passed Rs 7.802 billion budget of City District Government Rawalpindi (CDGR) for the fiscal year 2009-10 with an overwhelming majority amid uproar and pandemonium.

The city district council, in a specially convened budget session held at a local hotel with Naib Nazim Muhammad Afzal Khokhar in the chair, approved the budget. Some 210 council members of 225 present in the house signed the document. The total strength of the council is 251 members.

No discussion: The budget, presented in the house by City District Nazim Raja Javed Ikhlas, was approved without any further discussion in Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) dominated house. The opposition members belonging to Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) stood up on their seats and agitated against it. They termed the budget anti-poor.

Ignoring the hue and cry of the opposition benches for keeping the budget for discussion in the next sessions, the treasury benches allowed the convenor to table the budget for voting.

Surplus: The budget estimates show a surplus of Rs 736 million with Rs 8.537 billion total receipts against Rs 7.802 billion total expenditure.

The expenditure estimates include Rs 5.833 billion for establishment expenses, Rs 200 million for liabilities of ongoing development schemes, Rs 200 million for repair and maintenance.

No new development schemes: No funds have been allocated for the new development scheme in the budget. Rs 237. 652 million have been allocated for 53 ongoing schemes. Rs 78.788 million have been allocated for Community Citizen Boards, Rs 230 million for Rawalpindi city roads and funds would be provided by the provincial government, Rs 1 million for the improvement of Nawaz Sharif Park Shamsabad and Rs 340 million for miscellaneous works.

In his budget speech, Ikhlas informed the house about the notification No SO ® 38-3//05 issued by the Punjab government on June 20, 2009, imposing ban on preparing and launching new development schemes by all the district governments in the province.

He said the local government (LG) system was working well and solving problems of the residents at grass roots level, but the provincial government had involved bureaucracy to usurp powers of people’s representatives.

He said the local governments were being blamed for poor law and order situation in their respective areas but in reality the Nazims had no powers in this regard.

He said the regional and city police officers had all the powers to maintain law and order situation.

He said the condition of roads, streets and sewerage system was worsening as the provincial government had frozen the development funds.

Ikhlas said despite ban on development schemes, he had made some changes in the budget document prepared by the city district administration and allocated Rs 160 million for the incomplete and ongoing development schemes.

The Nazim said he saved Rs 200 million by curtailing telephone, petrol, diesel, allowances and other irrelevant expenditures of the city district government departments. He said this amount would be spent on repair and maintenance of dilapidated roads in the district.

He also informed the house that Rs 30 million had been earmarked for the construction of District Council Secretariat. He directed the administration to complete it as soon as possible because the sitting council would hold its meeting in its hall.

After the budget speech, opposition members including Anjum Farooq Paracha, Mian Imran Hayat and some women members asked the nazim not to approve the budget in protest against the provincial government’s attitude.

Upon this, the Nazim urged the PPP and PML-N backed members to come forward and play their role to save the local government system.

The uproar continued for almost two hours. The treasury members after getting signatures from the members in favour of the budget announced that budget has been approved. While the opposition members said they did not accept the budget.

They said they did not yet read the budget document and it should be approved after discussion.

Main points

* Total receipts Rs 8.537 billion

* Total expenditure Rs 7.802 billion

* Rs 736 million surplus

* Rs 237 million for 53 ongoing schemes

* Rs 78 million for Community Citizen Boards

* Rs 230 million for city roads

* Rs 1 million for Nawaz Sharif Park upkeep

* Rs 340 million for miscellaneous works

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