Protesters give govt three months' deadline

The protest gathering was organized by Tehreek Haqooq-e-Awam upper Chitral. The speakers said even three months after the floods damaged the powerhouse at Reshun the government had not taken any step to restore it. As a result, people of upper Chitral remained without electricity. It may be noted that the Reshun powerhouse was built from a German grant provided to the federal government to compensate the people of upepr Chitral in lieu of their promise to abandon cultivating charas which was once a cash crop of the area. The protesters also warned the KP government not to make the mistake of launching a housing scheme in the Qaqlasht public grazing ground. They said the area was a grazing ground of the people of Mulkhow and Booni and they would not allow the provincial government and its stooges in Chitral to go ahead with the housing project to carve out expensive plots and sell them to outsiders. Hundreds of people in Chitral have become homeless and the government despite making promises after promises has failed to provide them shelters and now it wants to launch the luxurious housing scheme for the rich, they lamented. They also regretted that the government was not interested in reconstructing the Chitral-Mastuj road which remained in a dilapidated condition for years and the July-August floods further damaged it. Scores of lives have been lost in accidents on the road but the government remained as callous as it could be to rebuild the road, they added.]]>