Bashir Hussain Azad
CHITRAL: Flooding in Ayun nullah has put the scenic village at the risk of destruction and the residents have expressed dissatisfaction over the work being carried out under a project funded by the Asian Development Bank.
Addressing a press conference here on Monday, village council chairmen Wajihuddin, Mehmoodur Rehman and others demanded that the agreement with NESPAK, the consultant firm, should be cancelled to pave way for fresh tendering for award of the contract for the channelization of the stream and construction of protection walls along the bank of River Chitral.
They said that Ayun was threatened by flooding in the local nullah as well as the Chitral river. The river and nullah floods hit the village from June to September every year, and so far large swaths of agricultural land and orchards along with houses have been damaged.
They said that last year on the request of the Ayun residents a project was launched through a loan from the ADB and the superintending engineer of the irrigation circle Swat hired NESPAK as a consultant.
The tenders for the project were floated on January 21 this year but despite a request by the local people work at the site was not started in the working season from January to April on the pretext of non-issuance of a work order.
Now when the volume of water has increased due to melting of glaciers, work on the project is going to be started by the contractor.
The residents said that the consultant firm and the contractor had deliberately delayed the start of work and now they would under a bogus PC-1 try to misuse the funds by dumping some truckloads of stones on the riverside.
They demanded that the tenders should be floated afresh and the PC-1 should be prepared in accordance with the needs of the area to start the project in the next working season.