Reshun residents go on hunger strike

The MPA warned that if the KP government did not allocate funds for the construction of the Reshun powerhouse, the two MPAs from chitral would stage a protest sit-in outside the assembly house in Peshawar. The DC told the protesters that the government planned to establish the powerhouse afresh and for that the project had been included in the annual development plan (ADP) which would take time. But the residents of not only Reshun but almost the whole upper Chitral have been without power for over 10 months and the government could not make any alternative arrangement. The president of the ‘Reshun powerhouse movement’, former MPA Maulana Abdur Rehman said the government had been meting out step-motherly treatment to the people of Chitral. He said despite his party being in the coalition government the district nazim had been befooling the people of the area. One of the protesters told ChitralToday that a huge sum of Rs1.5 billion was allocated for the so-called solar panel project to provide electricity to the area but the project also went up in smoke and nobody knows where the amount was now lying. He said it was also strange under that under the project each consumer was asked to deposit Rs10,000 for the solar panel. This was almost impossible for the people who have already been badly affected by the floods and the earthquake of 2015. He said the protest and hunger strike would continue till the government comes up with some tangible and practical steps to resolve the issue instead of making hollow promises.]]>