ISLAMABAD - A survey soliciting proposals for upcoming budget suggests that 95 per cent of the respondents have demanded of the government to give less importance to the defence spending while making budget for 2008-09. 50 per cent of them have given top priority to health and education sector, while 31 per cent people have prioritised that agriculture sector should also be given priority for overall economic growth in the country, where as 14 per cent were of the view that infrastructure should be developed. The survey was conducted by Human Development and Rights section of Sungi Development Foundation, a right-based civil society organisation. Following seeking priorities for national budget, the respondents were also gathered at the seminar and reiterated that the budget 2008-09 needs to be formulated on the principles of justice, equality and democracy if it is to have any real meaning. They recommended that unnecessary ministries should be abolished to reduce the expenses and defence budget must be brought under the purview of Parliament. They were of the view that an integrated development plan is required at the national level to address all the development-related issues. The participants of the pre-budget seminar were stakeholders, including Sungi's community partners from Hazara Division and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, elected and non-elected local government representatives, parliamentarians and representatives of trade unions, media and concerned citizens were among the respondents and participants of the pre-budget seminar. The other recommendations made during the survey includes: "Installation of water treatment plants at community level to provide safe drinking water, youth needs to be engaged into sports and cultural activities, education must be given priority to provide quality education to the masses so that they can take part in the socio-economic development of the country, considerable cut in the defense budget and saving should be allocated for the social sector development, policies should be made to address the issue of unemployment, reconstruction and rehabilitation of earthquake affected area is required; people want to see the cut on taxes in coming budget and certainly no new taxes; substantial salary increment for government employees, balancing the taxation by bringing in more tax payer (rich) which are usually a less payers, developing a website showing budget details at the national, provincial and district level, structural land reforms to end the poverty." The survey also recommended that special measure should be taken to decrease 'growing inflation' rate to benefit the poor and salaried class and those who have large, often untaxed incomes and much greater resource allocation needs to be allocated for women-related. The participants of the seminar heavily criticised the district governments for allocating meagre funds for the development of social sectors. Chief Guest of the seminar, District Nazim Haripur, Yousaf Ayub Khan also sought more budget allocations to bridge the gap between development and non-development expenditures. A majority of participants underlined the need to allocate at least 15 to 20 per cent funds for the development sector while in the past two years only 2 to 3 per cent funds could be set aside in their district. Most of the participants were of the view that the term "Maximum relief for the poor" is just a political slogan. "Policy makers and decision makers prepare budgets for the rich and the poor get in the quagmire of insecurity," they added. They were of the view that food and energy crisis has been created to keep people's attention diverted from the real democratic issues.