Govt warned against pushing Yarkhun valley to the wall

It may be noted that charas used to be a main cash crop of the valley till about three decades ago when the residents completely abandoned its cultivation on the promise of the government of the day that they would in return be provided facilities such as free electricity, education, scholarships to students, healthcare etc. In this regard, funds were also provided by the governments of Germany and the USA to Pakistan. However, after the people of the valley eliminated the banned crop, nothing was given to them in return. Even the government did not discharge its responsibility of providing the people with the basic facilities of life. In the year 2007, a part of the village was destroyed by floods rendering dozens of families homeless and then in 2015 most of the village was again washed away. Brep is the largest village of the Yarkhun valley consisting of about 1,500 households. The residents complained that after the floods, none of the government functionaries or the PTI representatives visited the village and even the assistant commissioner Mastuj did not show up to listen to the grievances of the people. A few weeks ago, the residents had warned that they would block the only road to Broghil valley if their demands were not met by April 20. However, at the protest gathering on Wednesday, they said they did not want to create problems for the people of the valley up to the border area of Boroghil located at a distance of over 200 kilometers. The protest gathering was presided over by retired teacher Qadir Khan. Those who also spoke on the occasion included Sarfaraz Lal of Dewangol, Afsar Khan of Istach, Mir Rahim Khan, Muhammad Ashraf, Wor Muhammad ad Mir Ajab Khan. They said there were lots of discrepancies in the payment of compensation to the flood-hit people and most of the genuine affectees were yet to be compensated. The affected people were still looking for compensation to reconstruct their houses. They said the floods washed away six water channels to different localities of the village including Deh, Doke, Thurjal, Hone etc. Due to the non-reconstruction of the water channels, the people were without water and could not irrigate their agricultural crops and would be facing a starvation-like situation. Moreover, loans taken from Micro Finance Bank were yet to be waived in accordance with the announcemet of the prime minister in July last year. The government should issue the notification so that bank officials can stop harassing the villagers. They said as they could not sow wheat and even maize crops due to the non-construction of the destroyed water channels, they would go for the cultivation of charas in May. They said the successive governments took undue advantage of the peaceful people of Yarkhun valley who abandoned the cultivation of charas on the false promise of the rulers. On the other hand, they added, charas and opium were still being cultivated in Swat, Khyber Agency and other parts of the KP province. They warned that if the government did not heed to their demands and continued ignoring the backward valley, the people would be left with no option but to start the cultivation of charas and launch protests.]]>