CHITRAL: Many roads blocked by flash flooding, landsliding and avalanches following the recent rain/snowfall are yet to be reopened in different areas of Chitral, creating supply and mobility issues for residents.
The most affected areas included Yarkhun, Broghil, Laspur and Torkhow valleys of Upper Chitral and Garam Chashma in Lower Chitral.
Residents have been stranded in Broghil as the area has received heavy snowfall that buried the narrow road linking the valley with other parts of Chitral under avalanches. The local people said though roads to many areas in Chitral were cleared of snow and debris, the government departments concerned did not bother to send staff and machinery for removal of snow from the road to Upper Yarkhun, Broghil and Laspur.
Affected residents held a protest gathering in Harchin village of Laspur on April 4 and came down hard on the government and the district administration. They even said that if the KP government was unable to reopen the blocked roads and resolve public issues, the area should be given under the administrative control of Gilgit-Baltistan government.
The speakers at the meeting said bureaucracy utilized millions of rupees from public funds on their travel and stay at Shandur during the annual festival and even repaired the Shandur road in July every year but they were callous to the suffering of the locals who remain cut off from the outside world due to blockade of the road after the recent rain.
They said if the funds were meant for the repair of the Shandur road only to facilitate the bureaucrats and their families during the annual festival, the area people would boycott the festival this year.
They said PTI\’s Suriya Bibi had won the elections mainly from the votes of the people of Laspur and Yarkhun and later she became deputy speaker of the KP assembly. However, roads to Yarkhun and Laspur were blocked for over two weeks but she was nowhere to be seen and help her voters.
The participants of the gathering demanded of the district administration and the government to arrange machinery and staff for Shandur road on a permanent basis and construct bridges over the Shaidas and Harchin streams.