Residents express anger over non-opening of blocked road

BANG: Residents of Yarkhun have expressed their anger and disappointment over government’s apathy towards the reopening of the road to their area which is closed at different points in Brep for the last over a week.

The road was blocked after the recent rain in the south as well as inside Brep after flooding in mullahs.

Local volunteers on Aug 14th gathered in Brep and managed to restore light traffic by using private land as they could not remove the mud and boulders accumulated on the road by the floods.

As public transport vehicles are unable to cross the flooded road, people remain stranded in different parts of Yarkhun and unable to return to Chitral, Booni and down districts and cities after spending Eid holidays in their areas.

Locals told ChitralToday that machinery were sent to Laspur by the district administration of Upper Chitral to reopen similar blocked roads there but they returned to Booni without visiting Brep to clear the Yarkhun road.

The local people criticized the government as well as their elected representatives for always ignoring the issues of Yarkhun.

Besides being closed in Brep, the road to Yarkhun is in a very poor shape, especially in Khotanlasht, Dizg, Mahting, Bang, Pavur, Sholkoch and in areas up to Broghil.

This bridge over Chumarkhan Gol on Yarkhun road in Chapali has become highly dangerous due to lack of maintenance. pic.twitter.com/qKNOhfeR3M

— Chitral Today (@ChitralToday) August 17, 2019

In most of these villages, local mullahs/streams have witnessed flash floods which accumulated lots of debris and boulders on the road making it impassable for even four-wheelers.

But despite suffering of the commuters, no government department is taking notice of the issue to rehabilitate the road. The Yarkhun road has not been repaired for over a decade now. Wooden bridges over streams on the road have also become dilapidated but the government remains unmoved to repair them.

Volunteers in Yarkhun had repaired the road when His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan visited Booni to meet his followers about three years ago. The local people said for how long volunteers should keep on repairing the road. Local youth cannot remove boulders and other obstacles brought down by floods or rebuild a bridge. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure the repair and maintenance of the road, they said.

The people of Bang said that they would mobilize the people of other villages to hold a protest demonstration against the government for ignoring the area which besides the broken roan was also without basic facilities of life.