Hunger strike to continue till action against corrupt depts
CHITRAL, Oct 10: The token hunger strike being observed by the residents of Booni to register their protest against alleged massive corruption in the communication and works (C&W), public health engineering and irrigation departments has entered ninth day.
Talking to this scribe at the hunger strike camp, the angry protesters said the government had released billions of rupees for different developmental schemes of the area but nothing was seen on the ground and the funds were embezzled by the corrupt officials and shown on paper only. They said that roads of Subsivision Mastuj had developed ditches and cracks but the C&W department had shown it as blacktopped and carpeted on papers. They alleged that Torkhow and Mastuj roads had been shown as metalled. They said the irrigation department had launched a project to construct a water channel in 2002 and spent millions of rupees on it but there was no water in the channel. The design of the channel was made faulty to linger the work and pocket more and more money. They said that residents of Booni had also been deprived of potable drinking water but the public health engineering had spent millions of rupees on ghost water supply schemes. “We maintain and repair our roads on a self-help basis,” they added.
Members of the hunger strike camp said time and again they had requested the local administration for conducting an inquiry into the alleged embezzlement in the C&W, irrigation and the public health departments but to no avail. The angry residents observe the token hunger strike on 7am to 2.30pm daily. They demanded an inquiry into the allegation under supervision of a judge of high court to ascertain how much funds have been embezzled on these ghost schemes. Otherwise, the warned, they will continue their strike and even take to the streets till fulfillment of their genuine demands. They also stressed upon the provincial government to crack down on the rampant corruption in these departments.
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Peshino shapiko tama bhok hartal band…ahhah….30 minutes later than lunch time.