LARKANA, June 25: District Nazim Khursheed Ahmed Junejo here on Tuesday presented a 35.5 million deficit budget for 2003-4 of his district government at the district council session without offering details of the budgetary allocations.

Amid the objection that the district council members had not been provided budget document, convener Athar Abbas Solangi adjourned the session till June 27 when the budget will be discussed in the light of a report of a committee, constituted to study the budget.

In his budget speech, the Nazim said that the district government budget envisaged an income of Rs2.381 billion and an expenditures of Rs2.417 billion hence a deficit of Rs 35.5 million. He did not explain how the deficit would be met but said that no new tax had been imposed in the budget.

Mr Junejo said that Rs 1.65 billion had been earmarked for salaries of the district government and Rs 277.7 million for other purposes.

He alleged that the district accounts officer had failed to properly maintain the district government accounts.

Ghulam Rasool Noonari staged a walkout on the plea that members of the district council had been kept in dark about the budget as its copies had not been provided to them. Later, Amir Bakhsh Gaad brought him back to the session.

Shabir Ahmed Hakro also objected to the hasty way in which the budget was presented.

The convener, responding to a point of order of Badruddin Abbasi, constituted a seven-member committee, headed by monitoring sub-committee chairman Manzoor Chandio, to study the budgets and present its findings on June 27 when the district council would meet to discuss the budget.

ROAD WORK: Warisdino Machhi union council Nazim Ghous Bakhsh Chandio has alleged that sub-standard material was being used in repair work on Ratodero-Mohammadpur road.

Talking to this correspondent here on Wednesday, he said that before the completion of the work on the 4km road, its repaired parts were already corroding.

He said that if the contractor was allowed to continue with the work, Rs2.5 million would go down the drain.

He urged the district Nazim to look into the matter and ensure proper work.

AIDS: A 60-bed ward would be established in the Chandka Medical College Hospital to house AIDS patients, said Sindh AIDS Control Programme project director Syed Sharaf Ali Shah.

He was talking to journalists in the central prison on Wednesday after arriving here with two other members of his team in the wake of the reports of sudden rise of the HIV positive cases in Larkana.

Mr Shah said that a team from Lahore would soon arrive here to take heroin addicts and the AIDS victims to Lahore where they would be admitted to a rehabilitation center.

Admitting that there were around 600 registered AIDS cases in Sindh, he rejected the impression of inefficiency on the part of the ACP in preventing AIDS, particularly in Larkana and added that the recently detected cases in the city were a proof of the efficiency of the ACP.

He also admitted that there were some lacunas as far as the prevention of AIDS was concerned, adding that every section of society was responsible for that.

He said that the blood of the relatives of the AIDS victims would also be screened.

Those present on the occasion included Larkana district Nazim Khursheed Ahmad junejo, CMCH medical superintendent Dr Syed Mehboob Shah, and prison superintendent Manzoor Memon.

KILLED: A high school teacher was killed and three others were injured when some armed persons opened fire on them in the Pathan village on Tuesday.

The teacher killed was identified as Aijaz Ali Siyal. The injured, Mukhtiar Ahmad, Irfan Ali and Nisar Ahmad, were admitted to the Chandka Medical College Hospital.