Muhammad Naeem-ul-Haq, member of National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB), has urged the print and electronic media to highlight the problems of the local governments and suggest their solutions. Speaking at a one-day Capacity Building Workshop on the local governments issues for media representatives, organised by NRB in collaboration with Communication Effective Social Services Delivery (CESSD) on Thursday, he offered all possible co-operation to the media and individuals for highlighting the problems of the local bodies.
"There were many apprehensions in the minds of the people about the local bodies before their introduction in the country, but all of them proved an illusion and the system worked successfully during the last three-and-a-half years," he observed.
He claimed that a considerable improvement has been witnessed in social service delivery all over the country since the introduction of the local bodies system. "People today have better access to education, health, water, sanitation and other basic civic facilities than they had in 2001 and previous years," he said.
The delivery of social services to the masses was poor prior to this system despite spending a huge amount by the government, he said, and added that it improved much after the introduction of the system.
He said: "Most of the town municipal administrations are now generating their own income in the country. However, there are some districts, which could not generate enough income to meet their financial requirements, for which the institution of Provincial Finance Commission was established under the Local Government Ordinance 2001."
NRB has also worked for fiscal decentralisation to district and town levels to make them financially sound and stable so that they could independently prepare their budgets and keep balance between their income and expenditure, he said.
POLITICIZATION: The NRB member rejected the politicisation of the local governments and said that the fiscal decentralisation would not affect the relationship between district and provincial governments and both would continue functioning within their respective jurisdictions.
He also rejected the impression that the local bodies are responsible for increasing price hike and adulteration in the country and clarified that the NRB also collected reports in this regard, which absolved the local bodies of the responsibilities for dearness and adulteration.
Earlier, Dr Tariq Niazi, Consultant Media and Governance Cell in NRB, introduced and explained the objective of the workshop. He said that Media & Governance Cell has been established in NRB with the same objectives of developing better relationship between NRB and media regarding pinpointing of the problems confronting the district, tehsil, town and union councils and suggesting their solutions.
"Any common man or representative of media, who is interested in writing articles, features, news stories, conducting interviews or preparing documentaries on local government issues could contact M&G Cell of the NRB for the facilities, they required," he added.
The website of Media & Governance developed by the NRB (www.mng.gov.pk) was shown on the occasion, which gripped the attention and interest of the participants.
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