December 28, 2002	Saturday	Shawwal 23, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Dec 27: Affected people of Chotiari Dam have threatened not to leave their villages which fall in the water reservoir area of the dam until their due compensation are paid.

Representatives of affected people of Chashma Right Bank Canal and Chotiari Dam held a day-long hunger strike in front of Asian Development Bank (ADB) office here to register their concern with the donor agencies.

Majeed Manguri, representing affected people of Chotiari dam said: “We have decided in principle that if the international donors along with the Government of Pakistan do not disburse the agreed compensation to the displaced people, they will not leave their villages and prefer to die”.

Although, suicide is forbidden in Islam but with no place to live hereafter, people will be forced to embark on this last resort, Mr Manguri said.

He said, although the project had been completed and about to be inaugurated by President General Pervez Musharraf, around 400 hundred affected families were still not given alternate lands or money.

Talking to this reporter, Mr Mushtaq Gadi of the People’s Right Movement (PRM) who was also present on the occasion said the affected people of Chotiari Dam and CRBC were promised alternative land, but the government said it had no land to give to them.

Mr Gadi said Chashma Right Bank Irrigation project would be completed on December 31, 2002 and till now only a handful people had received compensation that too far below the prevailing market rates.

“As many as 22 villages are likely to be displaced by flooding and thousands more are already facing direct threat to their livelihood as a result of Chashma project”, he said.

He said the people had lost faith in the country’s legal system to protect their rights and on the other hand the same system was catering to the need of state’s elite and international financial institutions.