Rules of the game: Nazims, councillors to be trained on LG system

PESHAWAR:

Now that the nazims, naib nazims and councillors have taken office, it is time to train and enable them to better understand the rules of the system and handling of affairs.

“The training of 170 master trainers is in its final stage and is expected to be completed by Friday (today),” an official of the local government department told The Express Tribune. “After that, these master trainers will impart training to the newly elected councillors in their respective districts, towns, tehsils and villages.”

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa LG department is likely to get Rs180 million to train over 45,000 councillors, nazims and naib nazims.

The official added that the first four batches of master trainers have completed their course. “The trainers who are government officials were trained in Peshawar, Malakand and DI Khan.”

Get set, go

“They will start training the councillors in their respective districts. The aim is to guide councillors and nazims about their powers, nature of work and ways of the system,” he said. “They would also educate the elected individuals about their duties and teach them effective methods to perform and plan their tasks. The elected office holders would also be taught ways to complete projects efficiently.”

Each councillor will get three-day course and training material for the job. “The initial budget estimates for the training is Rs180 million which the K-P Planning and Development department will provide.”

It has also been decided that the LG department would conduct a two-day workshop for district nazims, along with the Sub-National Governance Programme – under which it is aimed to improve the district governments’ performance. “We can only afford to pay for the workshop and accommodation of the district nazims because they are few in number.”

Tools prepared

The LG legislation has been translated in Urdu by the department with the support of a German corporation. This has been done for the convenience of the councillors. The text of the training material is in Urdu, which will be the medium of communication during the training.

The venues have been decided according to the convenience of participants. The district councillors would be trained at the district council headquarters, tehsil councillors at tehsil council offices, while village and neighbourhood councillors will be trained at schools or government offices.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 4^th,  2015.