The programme was launched in separate meetings at Turbat and Dera Murad Jamali and largely attended by union council nazims and secretaries, the tehsil nazims, the district nazims, the district co-ordination officers and others.
Speaking on the occasion, Balochistan Finance Minister Ehsan Shah encouraged the people of the Kech district to organise themselves in the form of citizen community boards and take charge of their own development. "I shall even try to divert a portion of my own development fund towards the local CCB funds. I shall also seek facilitation from the provincial level to the poor and marginalized districts, including Kech, for this purpose," he added.
Memoranda of Understanding have been signed with the district, its four tehsils and 36 out of 38 union councils. These MoUs provide a detailed description of the roles and responsibilities of the local government as well as DTCE for making community empowerment a success in the district.
DTCE also signed Memoranda of Understanding with all 24 union councils of the Naseerabad along with partnership agreements at tehsil and district level to create an enabling environment for undertaking community empowerment.
District Nazim of Naseerabad Sardar Fateh Ali Khan Umrani welcomed the initiative of DTCE and its chairman Daniyal Aziz and said: "This backward area (Naseerabad district) would benefit tremendously through DTCE's interventions in addressing the problems of the people through the CCB platform at the grass roots level."
In his address, the provincial Minister for Industries, Mir Ghafoor Lehri, appreciated DTCE's role and its operations in this backward and neglected area.
The launch marks the initiation of DTCE's proactive community empowerment partnership in two most marginalized districts of Balochistan.
DTCE is a non-governmental organisation working for the strengthening of Local Government system at district, tehsil, and union levels. So far DTCE has operationalized its programme in Narowal, Faisalabad, Rahimyar Khan, Lahore, Gujrat, Swabi, Charsadda, Mansehra, Abbottabad, Haripur, Khairpur, Tharparkar and Lasbela districts.-PR