Due to financial crisis, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government could not release first installment of the development fund to the local government representatives despite lapse of one and a half months of the current financial year.
According to elected representatives, the local government representatives are unable to start development work despite approval of the budget. The provincial government had approved the development budget to the tune of Rs41 billion for the local bodies, of which first tranche of more than Rs10 billion was to be released in the first week of July.
The KP Finance Department issued details of funds to all tehsils according to their share in the beginning of July, on the basis of which the local governments members prepared budgets and approved it from LG councils.
The provincial government has approved Rs37 billion for the tehsil, village and neighborhood governments of the settled districts, of which Rs21 billion are for the tehsil governments, Rs14 billion for village and neighborhood governments. Similarly, the chief minister has been authorized to use Rs740 million of local government funds, while the finance minister has been authorized to utilized Rs370 million of funds.
The provincial government has set aside Rs4 billion for the local governments of tribal districts, of which Rs2 billion are for the tehsil governments and Rs1.6 billion for village and neighborhood governments, but they have not yet received any fund from the provincial government due to financial crisis.