HYDERABAD, May 31: Nazims of the district's rural union councils have threatened to hold a protest demonstration outside the office of the DCO on June 5 if octroi tax amount is not released to the councils.

Speaking at a news conference at the press club here on Monday, they said that they would tender resignations in person to President Gen Pervez Musharraf if no action was taken in the matter.

The Nazims said that the union councils had not been released the funds after February 2002. They said that on Dec 16, 2002, the secretary for the local government issued a circular clarifying that the union councils would continue to receive the funds.

However, the Nazims, who are also members of the Hyderabad District Council, said that the Hyderabad DCO had not released the funds to the union council, despite the fact that the Sindh government had released the octroi instalments to the DCO. They said that they were only receiving salary amount of the union council staff.

They claimed that about Rs60 million of the octroi instalments of the union councils was lying with the district government. The Nazims said that due to the non-release of the octroi amount, development works in rural union councils were lying incomplete and the councils were not in a position to clear dues of contractors.

They regretted that the union councils even did not have funds to purchase brooms which was affecting sanitation work and added that power supply and telephone lines of the union councils had been disconnected for non-payment of bills.

They said that the union councils under the new devolution system were given great importance but bureaucracy was bent upon destroying the system. Contrary to this, the rural union council Nazims said, urban union councils were getting Rs21,068 per month in addition to the salary amount of their staff.

They said that they had met Sindh Chief Minister Ali Mohammad Mahar during his visit to Hyderabad on May 24 in presence of the DCO. They said that Mr Mahar had directed the DCO to release the octroi funds to the union councils but the DCO had defied these orders.

They appealed to the president, who had introduced the new devolution system, to order an inquiry against the DCO and ensure the release of the funds to the union councils without delay.