The local government at Kech district comprises 31 union councils, one district council, and one municipal committee. The mandate of local councils was to address various socio-economic development issues on local level through need assessment, planning and implementation (see annex 4 for functions of local government). These local councils are supervised and supported by Local Government and Rural Development Department through an Assistant Director at district level. However, it is a common complaint that instead of working as an auxiliary organisation, LG&RDD has been posing bureaucratic hurdles in the affairs of local government institutions.

Ideally, local government institutions are constituted on the assumption that in this way grass root decision making and implementation for development could be ensured; but this ideal has not been realised. Although small communities elect their representatives at local level and there is more intense interaction and exchange of ideas between representatives and the electoral college, participation of common folks in the decision making process is minimal. After being elected, members of local councils rarely consult their voters on development issues. Similarly, the appraisal of development potential and planning for exploitation of this potential is not according to the bottom-up approach. Rather a top-down decision making and implementation approach is followed. This approach leaves no room for participation of local government institutions in development planning.

All local government institutions in Balochistan have been dissolved on 18th of December 1996 for new elections in 1997. Now these institutions are working under the supervision of government officials. The Deputy Commissioner, the Assistant Commissioner and the Development Officer, LG&RDD administer the district council, the municipal committee and the union councils respectively.

The Union Council is the lowest local government institution. The membership of each union council varies from 5-15 members. However, the elected councillors in every Union council have to elect 2 women and one peasant member in their Union council. Women have been elected, but they hardly participate in activities. There are 31 Union councils in Kech, a list of which along with number of their wards and voters is given in annex 2.

The Union council, ideally, provides an opportunity for the people of rural areas to participate in decision making at micro level. It was assumed that a council of a small community will have better chances of intense interaction and grass root appraisal of the problems of the people. However, the Union council is not consulted in development planning for the rural areas. Usually decision making follows top-down approach, therefore, nullifying the ideal function of Union councils. In addition, the Union council has never received the financial support of higher authorities, it was supposed to receive, to be able to fulfil its functions, as described in the Local Government Ordinance of 1980

The only income of the Union council is a regular grant of rupees 18,000 per annum by the provincial government. This small amount does not allow the Union council to plan development strategies for the people in rural areas. The Union council is not consulted in development planning for the rural areas..

At present (1997) there is no Town Committee in the district.

The only Municipal Committee of the district is of Turbat. The MC Turbat comprises 35 directly elected councillors, one from each of the wards, and 2 women and one labour councillor elected by the 35 elected councillors. In 1992, total voters of the Municipal Committee Turbat were 26,723 out of which 13,100 were female voters.

The MC Turbat has arranged the collection of household garbage by employing sweepers and a tractor trolley. This garbage is dumped alongside the Kech kaur and sometimes burnt there. There is no sewerage system in the town. Streets, specially of surrounding villages, are hard to walk through as the sewerage water flows just in the middle of these streets. The major source of the municipal committee’s income is octroi. Some other taxes like business fee and land tax are also levied. In 1994-95, the municipal committee earned Rs 2,860,349 while its expenditure was Rs 4,090,194. In 1995-96, income of Turbat MC was 4.13 million rupees against total expenditure of Rs 4,478,855. This deficit budget created financial crises for the municipal committee. At present the MC Turbat is paying only salaries and pension, while all other expenditure is being made on loan basis. The municipal committee has prepared a surplus budget for the year 1996-97 (income Rs 5,945,563, expenditure Rs 5,942,485) but it may be converted into a deficit budget by the end of the year. Annual Development Plan has not been awarded since 1992-93 and the municipal committee does not have money for its development plans. The elected representatives are at odds with each other. In this situation the people of Turbat town are the ones who are actually suffering from health hazards and an unclean environment.

The District Council Kech comprises 35 councillors out of which 31 are elected directly (one from each of the 31 union councils) while 4 councillors including 2 women, one peasant and one labourer are elected indirectly by the elected councillors. The District council is primarily responsible for the overall development of rural areas of the district (detailed functions of the local government institutions are described in annex 4).

Apart from special grants and annual development plans, zila (district) tax is the sole source of regular income for the District council. Total income of the District council was Rs. 1,338,008 in 1994-95 while the total expenditure was Rs. 1,375,963. In 1995-96, the total income of the council was Rs 1,150,673 against the expenditure of Rs 1,138,377. For 1996-97 it is expected that the District council will be able to earn Rs 1,322,626 to meet its expected expenditure of Rs 1,119,912.

It seems that mismanagement is one of the major factors to the financial crisis of the District council. Fluctuations in the revenue collection and expenditure confirm this assumption. A grant of 148,630 rupees was awarded by the central government in 1996 for POL of the grader, which has been purchased and is being used to grade the link roads. No annual development plan was granted after year 1992-93.

The District Council Kech, also, is a victim of political rivalries. Since the chairman of the council belongs to a political party other than that of the MPA or MNA, the result is that no special development funds have been provided to the District council in the previous 4 years. If appropriate funding and proper management of zila tax collection is arranged, the council can achieve its mandatory goals.

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