FAISALABAD, July 2: The City District Government Faisalabad has failed to present its annual budget for the year 2006-07 despite the commencement of the new fiscal year.

Sources say that CDG financial managers, busy in the preparation of the budget, face a shortfall of Rs1.2 billion. The shortfall, it is learnt, is delaying the final budget document.

Soon after getting the status of the city district government, the local council was caught in financial crisis.

Sources said that financial experts of the local government, instead of taking solid steps for meeting fiscal requirements and allocating budget for developmental projects, preferred to go for cosmetic measure and presented the last year (2005-06) short-term budget before the house with an `expected’ amount of Rs860 million in shape of future grant from the president of Pakistan.

When contacted, a government official confirmed that there was no chance of presentation of annual budget of the City District Government in the house during the next 10 days.

He said that now the matter would be treated under sub-section (6) of the Section 112 of the PLGO 2005, in which it was noted that “in case a budget is not approved by a council before the commencement of the financial year to which it relates, the concerned local government shall spend money under various heads in accordance with the budgetary provisions of the preceding financial year for a period not exceeding 30 days on pro-rata basis.”

It may be noted here that under sub-section 7 of the section 112 of PLGO 2005, “in case the budget is not passed within the extended period as specified in sub-section (6), the budget shall be prepared, approved and authenticated by the Punjab government for the full year.”

MAJALIS: Shia scholars and representatives of various shia organisations have threatened to committees constituted by the government and launch a protest move against local police for not permitting them to hold `Majalis’ in the city.

Speaking at a news conference here on Sunday, Jaafar Hussain Naqvi, Qamar Hussain Bukhari, Tujammal Hussain Zaidi and officeholders of Azadari Council Faisalabad said that local police had adopted a negative approach by imposing a ban on the Majalis and processions.