I’ll not allow non-local staff to work at Golen Gol: Sardar Hussain

CHITRAL, Jan 2: The MPA from upper Chitral, Syed Sardar Hussain Shah, has demanded of the government to stop the appointment of non-local persons against the vacant non-technical  posts in Golen Gol hydropower project in Chitral which is a sheer infringement of the rights of the local people. 

Talking to ChitralToday here on Friday, the MPA expressed his anguish over the appointment of non-locals in the power project while thousands of unemployed youth were vying for jobs in Chitral. He said hundreds of families had been rendered homeless after their lands and homes were acquired for the project.

He alleged that Senator Zahid Khan of the ANP was using his influence as the chairman of the Senate standing committee on water and power and had got recruited people from his constituency in the project.

He said everywhere in the country, the non-technical jobs in the lower grades are given to the locals but in case of Golen Gol project, the local people were being deprived of this right.

“It is a shameful act to send peon, chowkidar, driver and junior clerks from the district of Lower Dir to Chitral by WAPDA,” he said, adding that this had made the local people highly dejected. Mr. Shah warned that he will offer physical resistance against such ‘reprehensible act’ of the government and will not allow the outsiders to work in the project against the posts of lower grades while the local people have no option but to resort to such direct action.

He said that more than five hundreds households have been directly affected by the project in the villages of Koghuzi and Golen and they sacrificed for the power project of immense importance but they sacrifice was not recognized by the government. Was there no person available in a population of half a million of Chitral to be appointed as peon, driver and clerk, he posed a question to the WAPDA authorities and said that the situation be tense if the abhorring practice is not stopped forthwith.

Mr. Shah said that the Golen Gol power project was first of its nature in Chitral which was destined to add 109 megawatt electricity to the national grid and will mitigate the duration of power outage. He said that at the same time, the local people had attached great importance to the project in the hope that it would provide them with job opportunities.