MULTAN, May 30 Though the preparations for district's annual budget for the 2009-10 fiscal are well under way, it seems unfortunate for the people of Multan that the district government could not start over 200 schemes under its annual development programme for 2008-09 owing to an alleged tussle between the bosses of municipal government and the provincial government over distribution of schemes through nazims or MPAs.

The district government had passed a Rs6478.513 million budget for the fiscal year 2008-09 out of which Rs742 million were reserved for 375 new schemes and Rs558.058 million for 391 ongoing schemes.

However, no new project could be launched, as the bureaucracy, allegedly on the directives of the provincial government, refused to release the requisite funds to the local government to execute these projects.

When the district assembly refused to give a 70 per cent share of the development schemes to the local MPAs against the 'wishes' of the Punjab government, the latter directed the bureaucracy serving in the former's territorial jurisdiction to put these schemes on a back burner until the members of the district assembly agreed sharing these schemes with MPAs of the ruling party, District Nazim Mian Faisal Mukhtar told Dawn on Saturday.

He said that members of the district assembly submitted their schemes to the office of district coordination officer (DCO) but no step was taken by the DCO's office to execute these schemes, rather it urged the district assembly to approve the schemes according to the 'wishes' of the provincial government.

He said that nazims refused to act upon the 'advice' as there was no such provision in the Punjab Local Government Ordinance 2001 to compel them to do so.

He said that though allocated funds for the schemes were available with the district government, they were not being utilised due to non-cooperative attitude of the bureaucracy.

He said that work on ongoing schemes, which started two to three years ago and were nearing completion, was also halted.

He said that on the one hand funds were being demanded for the district from the prime minister and the chief minister while on the other hand there was reluctance on part of the “rulers” to spend the money already available with the district government on development schemes.

He said that hurdles had been created in the launch of development schemes while millions of rupees were being spent on the residences and offices of bureaucrats without prior approval of the district assembly.

He said that around Rs10 million had been spent on renovating the DCO's residence, Rs6 million on his office, Rs1.5 million on his camp office and Rs6 million on Civil Rest House.

“The Circuit House is under provincial government's control but Rs7.5 million have been spent on its renovation from district government exchequer by withholding the funds meant for repairing hospitals and purchasing medicines, building schools and streets and other public welfare projects,” he added.

He said that though about 100 schemes had been approved by the DCO office on district assembly's persistent demands, the bureaucracy was reluctant to issue tender advertisements for these schemes.

He said that the local government system was solving the problems of the people at grassroots and to their extreme satisfaction, but the provincial government clipped the powers of the people's representatives by empowering the bureaucracy.

He said that roads and streets of the city were in pathetic condition and sanitation system was out of order while health centres and educational institutions lacked basic facilities due to stoppage of development funds by the provincial government while district assembly members were sitting in their offices without any work for the last one year.

He said that all schemes could be launched before the presentation of the new budget if the chief minister directed the DCO to submit report after issuing tenders of all schemes within a week but if he did not, it would be considered a bad luck of the citizens of Multan.

Finance and Planning EDO Javed Iqbal ruled out taking up 70 per cent schemes from MPAs and remaining 30 per cent from nazims through the development budget.

He said that after Rs600 million out of Rs742 million development funds were spent on raising the salaries of district government employees.

He said that Rs400 million were returned by the provincial government last month and 80 per cent schemes of various district departments and 65 per cent of nazims had been approved and all these schemes had been approved by the district assembly. He said that tenders for the new schemes would be issued before the presentation of the budget for the new fiscal.

PML-N MPA Shahid Mehmood Khan said that public exchequer should be spent on the welfare of the people indeed but Mukhtar should be held accountable for his “poor” performance as city district nazim for the last seven years.

He said that Mukhtar did nothing for the welfare of the Multan residents and only took personal benefit by purchasing the Pak-Arab Fertiliser at a throwaway price.

He said that only a single road near the residence of the Multan commissioner was constructed in the city during last one year which was an example that how much the bureaucracy was interested in solving the problems of the people or facilitating their own community.

He said that he would raise the issue before the chief minister in the coming parliamentary party meeting so that funds could be released and development schemes could be launched.