April 20, 2007	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 02, 1428

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PESHAWAR, April 19: The NWFP local government and rural development department (LG&RDD) has opposed the proposed shifting of the administrative control of the local area authorities to the housing department.

The LG&RDD had recently submitted a summary to Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani pleading that the shifting of authorities to the housing department would be contrary to the Local Government Ordinance (LGO-2001), officials told Dawn here on Thursday.

The chief minister, who also holds the portfolio of housing department, has principally agreed to the shifting of administrative control of the local area authorities.

The LG&RDD, which currently maintains the administrative control of the authorities, has pleaded that as per the first schedule of the LGO-2001, housing, urban and physical planning are devolved departments.

“Main mandate of the local area authorities is to undertake tasks relating to town development which are supposed to be completed under the supervision of district governments.

Therefore, these bodies ultimately come within the ambit of districts,” the officials quoted the summary as saying.

The local area authorities were operating under the administrative control of the housing and physical planning department which was abolished to curtail non-development expenditures.

Following the dissolution of the department, the administrative control of the authorities was handed over to the local government and rural development department.

The housing department was re-established on November 1, 2004 to regulate the housingrelated activities, but so far it had been unable to undertake a single project, the officials said.

The housing department wants the control of the authorities on the grounds that it will enable the department to implement housing projects as envisaged under the National Housing Policy 2001 and other tasks assigned by the provincial government.

The department has the NWFP Provincial Housing Authority formed in 2005. The authority is responsible for planning and execution of schemes for government employees and others.

The housing department claims that before the restructuring plan, the local area authorities were part of the department.

The department pleaded that it could become the administrative department for the local area authorities by only dealing with the affairs of employees above grade 17, the officials added.

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