Nazim pays tributes to volunteers for reconstruction of road

MSTUJ: Ismaili volunteers have won accolades for repairing the main road to Mastuj and Yarkhun to facilitate the commuters who were facing hardship due to the broken road.

Talking to ChitralToday, village council Khuz nazim Noor Ajam said for months he had been requesting the deputy commissioner Chitral and the authorities of the Communication and Works (C&W) Department for the reconstruction and repair of the track but to no avail. He said due to the lack of maintenance for years, the people of Broghil, Yarkhun and Mastuj had been facing immense hardship while commuting on the road.

Similarly, people of Laspur are also repairing the road from their area to Mastuj. The nazim said as the government department ignored the reconstruction of the road and also did not give any importance to the repeated request by elected representatives and people of the area, especially before the expected visit to Booni of His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan, the people of the area started reconstructing the road in their respective villages.

He said the reconstruction of the road from Broghil to Booni by the locals was at the final stage and the volunteers were widening and paving the track on self-help basis. After the repair of the road, travel time on the road has drastically reduced, giving a big relief to the travellers and winning appreciations for the community. He said it was unfortunate that the government department even did not bother to start some patchwork on the road to facilitate the Ismaili community when their spiritual leader was scheduled to visit upper Chital.

He said culverts in Chapali and Chuinj village have been repaired by the Ismaili community while the damaged bridge over the Chumarkhan stream has also been reconstructed. He said the Ismaili community was not only actively taking part in the reconstruction of the road but its members had also pooled in contributions to purchase cement and other material for repairing the culverts and small bridges on the road from Broghil to Booni.

He said the reconstruction of the road, including the culverts and bridges, was the responsibility of the C&W department but it failed to discharge its duty forcing the Ismaili community to take on the work to facilitate its members to travel to Booni to meet their spiritual leader in the first week of December. He said he was issuing this statement to inform all the government authorities and elected members of Chitral that the Ismaili community itself repaired the road and constructed the damaged bridges and culverts as the C&W department bosses remained in deep slumber.

Now the department would not be allowed to try to take credit for the reconstruction of the road, he added.