PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided that the district development advisory committees (DDACs) and district government development committees (DGDCs) will work simultaneously to approve development schemes in districts.

The decision was made during a meeting held here with Chief Minister Pervez Khattak in the chair, said an official statement.

The meeting had detailed review of the draft Rules of Business (ROB) of LGs, the Planning and Development Guidelines for LGs and composition and Conduct of Business Rules of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa LG Commission and the Provincial Finance Commission.

It took certain crucial decisions to ensure independent and well-disciplined working of all tiers of LGs and finalised a number of rules to define the way of their functioning and exercise of powers.

The meeting decided that the DGDC would chalk out development strategy for each district government and that the respective district nazim will head the committee, which will approve development schemes of the district.

The DGDC will consist of deputy commissioner, district ofHcers of planning, Enance and social welfare departments, executive engineers of C&W and public health engineering departments, assistant director of the local government department and district head of the relevant department.

Likewise, the DDAC will continue working independently and will deal with affairs of MPAs and federal government-funded development schemes.

However, the district nazim will be made ex-officio member of DDAC for coordination only.

Under the P and D Guidelines approved during the meeting, it will be necessary for all district governments to allocate 20 percent of development funds for education and health sectors, 10 per cent for drinking water and sanitation services (DWSS) and five per cent each for agriculture, women`s development and youth and sports activities, while 30 per cent will be spentonothersectorsatthe discretion of the district governments.

Every tehsil council of the province can spend 30 per cent of its development budget on DWSS, 20 per cent on municipal services, 10 per cent on roads,10 per cent on youth, sports and women activities and the remaining 30 per cent for other sectors on need basis.

On the occasion, the chief minister directed the LG department to hold elections of four members, two each from district and tehsil councils` nazims, for induction in the PFC under the Local GovernmentAct 2013. He also issued directions to make arrangements for finalising the composition of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa LG Commission.

The chief minister said the provincial and newly-formed district governments were bound to adhere to the relevant rules, laws and policies while conducting their respective ofñcialbusinesses.

He said since the chief executive of the province as well as members of the provincial cabinet didn`t enjoy powers, which could allow them to make appointments or interference into transfers, postings and such other affairs of the provincial government`s departments, the district governments would be required to follow the same course to maintain the administrative and management discipline in the province.