HYDERABAD, July 5: Members of the Councillors Ittehad Forum staged a protest demonstration outside the press club on Monday to protest against negligence of the district government resulting in the lapse of development funds.

The forum leaders, Younus Qureshi, Saeed, Umar Daraz and Iqbal Qureshi, said that while the funds had lapsed yet assurances were given through press statements that the amount, surrendered by the Hyderabad Development Authority, would be utilized for those schemes despite the fact that the district government had nothing to do with the HDA.

They said that the people could not be kept on false hopes and made it clear that they would continue their protest till the issuance of work orders for those schemes.

They maintained that elected representatives were supposed to safeguard interests of the people. They said that the district council members were required to do justice with their constituencies but they often indulged in leg-pulling.

They maintained that when the district government had sought schemes for Rs1.3 million in each union council why tenders were not invited and added that UC nazims also observed silence over the delay.

Holding the district government as well as UC nazims equally responsible for the mess, they said, that while the HDA itself claimed non-availability of funds whenever it was blamed for poor sewerage and drainage system how come the HDA would provide funds of Rs80 million to the district government.

The leaders observed that the Hyderabad Development Authority also claimed that it had no funds to clear dues and pay salaries to its employees and added that councillors had to face the wrath of their electorates about non-development in their areas.

They urged UC nazims and naib nazims to iron out their differences and concentrate on development of their areas. They warned that if work orders were not issued by July 25 as per promise by the district government then CIF would resort to protest.

prison: IG, prisons, Brig M. A. H. Ayaz Mughni, with provincial additional home secretary Anwaar Hyder, paid surprise visits to the central jail and the women prison here on Sunday, reports Our Correspondent.

A jail official said that the officials were briefed by prison chief Muzaffar Alam Siddiqui on various development schemes being carried out in the jail. The officials inspected the work being carried out at the judicial complex, besides the juvenile jail, and also talked to prisoners, the jail official said and added that they also went to the women prison set up in the central jail.

Around 3,026 prisoners were detained in the central jail whereas 89 women prisoners, some of them foreigners, were confined in the women prison along with their children, the jail official said. Later, the prisons IGP and the additional home secretary left for Dadu.