As many as 7244 citizen community boards (CCB) have been registered in Punjab to undertake developmental projects at local levels and funds amounting to Rs 15 billion have been allocated for the projects. Punjab Minister for Local Government, Law and Public Prosecution, Muhammad Basharat Raja revealed this after a departmental briefing, here on Thursday.
Basharat maintained that under new local government system, each local government body was bound to allocate 25-percent of its annual development budget for CCB projects and in case of non-utilisation of CCB funds in a fiscal year, the amount so allocated was automatically transferred to next financial year and become a part of next year annual developmental budget.
He said that basic objective of CCBs was to ensure community participation in developmental activities and create the spirit of self-help in the community. He added that utilisation of CCB funds was low during the first tenure of local government institutions due to complicated procedure therefore; Punjab Government has decided to amend rules and regulations of CCBs to facilitate implementation of CCB projects.
He further said that international donor agencies were supporting devolution programme and 544 citizen community boards have been established in the Districts of Kasur and Lodhran. These boards had submitted 183 developmental projects out of which 59 projects were approved. He said that 22 projects were approved at district council level and one at tehsil council level in district Kasur whereas 33 projects at tehsil council level and three at union council level were approved in Lodhran district. An amount of Rs 300 million was allocated for CCB projects in these two districts, he added.