HARIPUR, July 15: Opposition members in the Tehsil Council have alleged that the presenting of the new budget is a violation of the Local Government Ordinance 2001. They said this during a council session held here on Thursday to debate the budget 2004/05.

Mohammad Amin Khan Badhora was in the chair. The Tehsil Nazim, Iftikhar Ahmad Khan, also attended the session. Javed Akhtar Khan, Naib Nazim of the Union Council of Panian, termed the entire process, from presentation to the debate on the budget as 'unlawful'.

He said that the TMA had presented a new budget when the house had not even seen the revised budget during the last three months. He accused the Tehsil Nazim of having blocked the disbursement of funds to 17 UCs in the tehsil.

Another member, Sheikh Abid, also termed the discussion on the new budget 'an unconstitutional exercise'. He said that the Tehsil Nazim had, without taking into account rules and regulations, deprived the areas with vast populations of their right of having development funds.

Mr Abid warned the house that the violations committed by the Tehsil Nazim and his supporters in financial matters would destroy the local bodies system which had "failed to provide relief to the common man and marginalized the communities".

Syed Fida Hussain Shah of Sera-i-Nehmat Khan UC threatened to resign if the situation remained unchanged. He also criticized the TMA for not getting approval of revised budget and ignoring 17 members in the distribution of development funds.

Gul Ambreen Minhas supported the views of her opposition colleagues and criticized the role of the convener, adding that the decisions not ratified by the majority in the house were being imposed on the house.

About allocation of funds for women's development, she said that the TMA had earmarked Rs754,000 for this purpose last year but nobody knew where these funds had gone. She sought details of expenditures from this allocation.

Raja Ehtesham pointed out certain flaws in the budget document and said that the TMA had allocated Rs5 million for non-development expenditures, and only a nominal amount for development. He also objected to the purchase of wireless sets and increase in allocation for sports.

Malik Razmat Khan and Haji Farid Khan also spoke in the house. Later the opposition members led by Prof Mohammad Din, Naib Nazim of the UC Kotnajibullah, and Raja Ehtesham announced that they were boycotting the tea and lunch in protest against the attitude of the Tehsil Nazim and of the convener. The convener prorogued the session till Friday.