CHITRAL: Children and women hailing from Kalasha tribe staged a peaceful protest demonstration against the provincial government for not reconstructing the roads damaged by flash floods in July last year.
The protestors demanded of the provincial government to pay due attention to the reconstruction of roads and other infrastructure that was destroyed by floods in 2015. The children and women registered their protest in a peaceful manner outside their place of worships in Kalash Valley.
A social worker Shahi Gul and a local government representative Maleet Gul lead the protest demonstration and said that the residents of the area had repeatedly requested the provincial government to reconstruct these roads and rebuild the power house but in vain.
“Neither damaged roads have been repaired nor the electricity system has so far been restored entirely,” Shahi Gul said. She added that the damaged and bumpy roads caused traffic jams due to which people of the area were confronted with a difficult situation.
Maleet Gul said that an application was submitted to Chitral deputy commissioner for repair and reconstruction of their worship place as well as for spending the development funds in upper areas of the district but he had taken no action so far. She said that no reconstruction and rehabilitation work had been done in Kalash area since floods hit the district last year.
Meanwhile, the officials of irrigation and communication department of Chitral had declined to comment on the issue. It is worthy of mentioning here that roads, pipelines, irrigation channels, micro hydro power houses, bridges and other infrastructures were damaged last year by flood but no rehabilitation work had been completed until now.
The protesters alleged that the provincial government had approved Rs 230 million for the channelisation of the Bumborat nullah but the contractor did not work on the same. Two excavators there were also out of order but the irrigation department had taken no action against the contractor either.
The protestors also said that in event of a second flood, the valley will be damaged on large scale due to the de-siltation and channelisation of flood canal.
