PESHAWAR: Senior minister for local government and rural development Inayatullah Khan on Monday announced that the government would give legal powers to the village and neighbourhood councils to resolve the local petty disputes through arbitration, mediation and reconciliation.

He criticised the federal government for denying the provincial government the initial installment of Rs25 billion on the head of net hydel profit in the current financial year.

The minister was speaking to reporters at the Peshawar Press Club, where additional secretary of the local government, elections and rural development department Barakatullah Khan Marwat and local government director general Adil Siddiq were also present.

He said the government had strengthened local bodies in the province to efficiently serve the people on their doorstep.

Minister complains centre not giving province hydel profit funds

“We’ve simplified the procedure for approval of the Annual Development Programme schemes for village and neighborhood councils, while in response to the demand of councillors, special financial grant of Rs200 million has been released to the district councils to pay the staff members’ salary and Rs500 million for TMAs to meet financial needs,” he said.

The minister said for the first time in history, the provincial government had allocated 33 per cent of its development outlay for local governments.

He said putting an end to all sorts of discrimination in allocation of funds to the local bodies, the government allocated Rs42 billion for local governments during the current financial year and that 50 per cent of the development funds had already been released to all the three tiers of local governments.

The minister said the government had allocated Rs13 billion for 3,501 village and neighbourhood councils in the province.

“A total of 2,600 village and neighbourhood council secretaries have been hired in a transparent manner to enable the lowest tier of the local government to serve the people. Similarly, the government has released Rs1.75 billion (Rs0.5 million each) to these councils as operational cost of offices to help these lowest tiers of the local body entities function properly,” he said.

The minister said a number of reforms had been initiated in collaboration with donors to improve service delivery in the province through local governments.

“To coordinate these reforms, a management cell has been established in the local government and rural development department,” he said.

The minister said among the successes of the local body system were Peshawar beautification project, Regi Model Town initiatives, e-governance measures, resource mobilisation (generation) plan for TMAs and local authorities and development of performance indicators for TMAs and the SADP programme reforms.

He complained that the federal government didn’t pay the KP government the initial installment of Rs25 billion on the head of net hydel profit in the current financial year despite agreement on the Rs70 billion payment.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2016