TIMERGARA: The Balambat tehsil council here on Thursday approved Rs57.28 million for launching development schemes in the area.

The approval was given during a meeting of the council held with naib nazim Zainul Abideen in the chair. The councillors and officials of various government departments attended the session.

Imranud Din, the tehsil nazim, told the meeting that Rs41.68 million would be spent on development projects.

He said that Rs14.36 million would be spent on water supply schemes, Rs10.08 on construction of link road, Rs500,000 on sports activities, Rs8.35 million on municipal services, Rs545,800 on irrigation, Rs1.91 million on electrical work and Rs2.38 million on beautification.

The nazim asked councillors to monitor development projects in their respective areas. He said that there would be no compromise on quality of projects.

BUDGET: The local teachers have rejected the provincial budget and demanded of the government to fulfil its pledge regarding their timescale promo-tion.

In their separate statements, Tanzeem-i-Asateza general secretary Abdul Khaliq, Ittehad-iAsateza president Haji Khaliqur Rehman, Malgari Ustazan president Wazir Zada, Insaf Teachers Association president Mohammad Tahir and Wahdat-iAsateza president Maulana Roohullah rejected the provincial budget.

They said that salaries of ministersand adviserswereincreased by 400 per cent while salaries of poor employees were increased only by 10 per cent.

They demanded of the government to announce special allowance for teachers.

They threatened to take to streets if government failed to meet their demand.

POWER OUTAGES: MNA Sahibzada Yaqub Khan has threatened to lead a protest if authorities fail to end prolonged power outages in Lower Dir.

Talking to journalists, he said that people had to fetch water from distant places as the existing water pumps could not be run owing to power outages.

`I will raise the issue of low voltage and power outage during `Sehr` and `Iftar` with the minister of water and power,` said the MNA.