UC system to end this month

The councils among other local issues would be empowered to issue birth, death and divorce certificates

RAWALPINDI: The Punjab government is expected to wrap up the old Union Council (UC) system in the province this month and replace it with the neighbourhood and village council system in cities and villages respectively from February 1.

The village councils will go by the traditional name of panchayats, officials said on Friday.

Appointments of secretaries for neighbourhood councils in the province have been completed, while those for panchayats are expected to be completed by January 25. These secretaries will also get a junior assistant.

The secretary and the peon, being government employees, will work under the elected local government representatives who will take charge after the next local bodies’ elections in the province.

Under the new local government system, the appointment of metropolitan officers in metropolitan corporations in major cities has been completed.

Similarly, officers for municipal corporations in small cities and municipal committees in towns have been completed across Punjab. Their new government accounts have also been opened in local branches of Punjab Bank.

The neighbourhood and village councils among other local issues would be empowered to issue birth, death and divorce certificates.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2020.