New district of Upper Chitral gets Rs1.43bn annual budget

CHITRAL: The District Council on Friday passed for the first time separate budgets for the fiscal year 2019-20 for Lower and Upper Chitral after bifurcation of the old district.

According to the budget documents, Lower Chitral has been allocated Rs3.27 billion and Upper Chitral Rs1.43 billion. These allocations included salary and non-salary expenditure, district council grant and development funds.

Addressing the session, District Nazim Maghfirat Shah said the provincial finance commission had separately estimated resources for the two districts. He said over Rs558 million unspent amount of the year 2018-19 was not included in the current budget out of which Rs55 million disaster fund was not released by the government.

The nazim said despite promises made by the PTI government before the local government elections, all sorts of hurdles were created for the functioning of the LG system in Chitral but even then the district government carried out its functions with the spirit of team work for the benefits of the people.

He claimed that due to the efforts of the house and its members, trade through Arandu and Durah passes would start soon while Chitral airport would be made operational for air transport with the Central Asian republic of Tajikistan.

Member Riaz Ahmed Dewanbegi presented a resolution in the house against possible privatization of GD Langlands School and College, demanding inclusion of public representatives in the board of governors of the institution and carrying out of an audit of the past 15 years of the accounts of the school.

 

Reporting: Bashir Hussain Azad