PESHAWAR, June 9: The Agriculture Development Bank has moved the NWFP government to relax recently imposed restrictions on transferring (mutation) of land in the area falling under the proposed Kurram-Tangi dam project, according to official sources.

The provincial government has recently banned land transactions and development in some 189 villages, a majority of which are in the settled parts of the southern NWFP while some fall under the jurisdiction of the Kurram agency of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

The ban has been imposed in villages which fall under the multi-billion-rupee project’s water reservoir and command canal.

The move, said the sources, was primarily aimed at preventing people from building structures in the area that would form the project’s water reservoir and command canal.

However, the government’s decision, enforced through an ordinance by the provincial governor, has hit the farmers community of the area, particularly the small farmers.

Because of the ban on transactions of land (mutation), said the sources, the farmers cannot mortgage piece(s) of their land with banks and development financial institutions (DFIs) for obtaining loans.

The authorities concerned of the ADB, NWFP, through a letter to the provincial government’s quarters concerned had sought relaxation in the recently imposed ban in order to let farmers mortgage their land with banks only for loan purposes.

In an identical case, the NWFP government had recently imposed a ban on mutation of land in the area forming part of the Gomal-Zam dam — being built at Khajori Kach in the Fata’s South Waziristan agency.

However, on second thought, the government recently amended the NWFP Gomal Zam Project (Control and Prevention of Speculation in Land) Ordinance, 2001. Through the amendment, the farmers community of the area has been allowed to mortgage their land only with the banks for seeking loans.

According to the sources, upon receiving the ADB’s letter the Irrigation Department, NWFP, had moved the provincial Board of Revenue (BoR) to do the needful to save the farmers community from hardships.

The government, said the sources, might shortly amend the ordinance through which land transactions in the Kurram-Tangi dam project area have been banned to rectify the situation.

“A proposal to relax the restrictions only for allowing mortgage of land with banks for loan purposes is under consideration of the provincial government and may well be incorporated through an amendment under the provincial ordinance,” said the sources.