BATTAGRAM: District Nazim Attaur Rehman Khan on Monday presented over Rs2.5 billion budget for the year 2017-18.

The budget session of the district council was presided over by district naib nazim Faheem Akbar Khan and was also attended by deputy commissioner Sardar Asad Haroon and heads of dif ferent departments. Mr Rehman informed the council that of the total outlay, Rs173 million had been allocated for development purposes.

The district nazim said Rs193 million had been allocated for payment of salaries to officials of the district departments, and Rs105 million for non-salary fund, which also included Rs 8.1 million education department special fund for construction of classrooms, and Rs11.8 million for carrying out petty repairs and health department medicine budget.

The district nazim said Rs4.8 million had been set aside for district council grant, which would be utilised on salaries and expenses of the council. Similarly, Rs6 million have been allocated for purchase of vehicles for district nazim and naib nazim, which was allocated from the non-salary saving of years 2015-16 and 2016-17.

He said on the orders of the provincial government, over Rs6 million had been allocated for purchase of three vehicles for additional assistant commissioners. Mr Rehman said the district council had allocated Rs106 million in the 2015-16 budget for development schemes, of which they spent Rs40 million and the remaining Rs65 million had been included in the current budget.

He said of the 272 projects stipulated in 2015-16 ADP, 120 had been completed, and the remaining would be complete this year. The district nazim asked the district council members to prepare the ADP of their respective union councils of the years 2016-17 and 2017-18 and present the same for the approval in the next district council meeting. Correspondent