PESHAWAR: A day after Prime Minister Imran Khan touted the success of the local government system in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in a television interview, the provincial government has imposed a cut of Rs 50 million on funds allocated for the local government department of the province.
The KP Finance Department has transferred Rs 1.64 billion to the Local Government Department for urban and rural development in the financial year 2020-2021. Out of this amount, Rs 578 million is allocated for rural development to be done by village councils, while Rs 1.7 billion was allocated for urban development.
However, according to sources, due to the non-payment of net profit of electricity and other funds by the federal government, KP is facing financial difficulties. To help themselves out during this crunch, the provincial government has imposed a cut of Rs 50.21 million, due to which the the LG department is facing financial difficulties. This cut came only 10 days after the government. provided funds to the department.
A day ago, Prime Minister Imran Khan during an interview with Arshad Sharif had commented on the 18th amendment, saying it was flawed because power had not been devolved to local governments, and that this had only happened in KP. However, observers soon brought up the fact that local body governments in KP had not been functioning for at least two years, which was when the last election should have constitutionally been held.
According to sources in the KP finance department, due to the lack of funds, a number of projects are lying incomplete due to which the provincial exchequer is facing billions of rupees loss as the cost of the projects are increasing with each day. The finance department has so far released just 10 percent of the budget allocations despite the passage of two months which are not enough to complete the ongoing projects.
The constructors have not been be paid the funds, due to which work on several projects have been stopped. The sources further revealed that the finance department has provided funds for all the projects, but the funds are lying in bank accounts and no new project has been initiated.
