HYDERABAD, Oct 25: Women members of the district council on Monday disturbed proceedings of its session here on Monday, forcing the presiding officer to adjourn it for Tuesday after hardly 15 minutes of deliberation.

The members, led by Shahnaz Baqai and Firdous Abro, were protesting against non-release of welfare fund.

Ms Baqai who rose on a point of order told presiding officer Miran Mohammad Shah that the women members had been denied development funds that had been promised to them over the past three years by the district nazim.

The women were here to just complete quorum of the session, she said. They had decided to boycott each session of the council till they were given the funds, she declared on behalf of the women councillors.

The women councillors walked out of the session and held a protest demonstration outside the district council hall.

The presiding officer sent Dr Ayaz Arain, Q. Hakim and Jiando Soomro to bring them back.

After talking to the protesting members, Dr Arain told Mr Shah that their demands were genuine and he should adjourn the session as they were not ready to attend it.

The members were discussing the resolution of Mr Parkash when the session was adjourned.

Mr Parkash had tabled the resolution on the issue of sugarcane price, demanding that the price should be fixed at Rs45 per 40 kilograms to extricate farmers from financial crisis caused by water shortage and increasing production cost.

He said cotton and onion should not be imported local production was better this year.

Azizullah Memon deplored that resolutions adopted earlier by the council had not been respected by the authorities.

He said the Mehran Sugar Mill, Tando Allahyar, had paid low price of sugarcane to growers, had not paid according to produce weight and had excessively charged against the government's approved specification for binding material of sugarcane.

He said the Trading Corporation of Pakistan had purchased 300,000 bales of cotton from ginners at Rs925 per 40kgs whereas ginning factories were offering Rs725 per 40kgs.

WOMEN MEMBERS: After staging the walkout, Ms Baqaiand Ms Abro told journalists that they had been committed development schemes of Rs200,000 each in year 2002-3 but the funds had not been released which consequently had lapsed.

They said in 2003-4, they had been again given nothing but assurances by the district nazim and added that no allocations had been made for women's welfare scheme in current year's budget.

"We feel that our participation in the council sessions is purposeless that is why we are resorting to protest", said Ms Baqai.

Ms Abro said in 2003-4, schemes of hand pumps, sewing machines and bicycles had been obtained from 33 women councillors and even tenders had been floated. But then release of the funds had been stopped for unknown reasons, she said.

She further said the DCO had promised to release the funds whereas the council had also approved an amendment to a resolution for easy purchase of sewing machines and bicycles but they were still waiting for funds.