KARACHI, Nov 18: Residents of Hawkesbay's remote areas falling in Keamari Town limits have been facing a lot of problems due to non-availability of public transport and absence of proper road network.
A survey shows that most of the people living in these villages have to use traditional means of transport, such as animal-driven carts, in the absence of modern transport facilities.
The villagers have urged the government to give the transport facility top priority and solve it immediately to save them from mental agony.
The survey shows that these villages, which are largely populated by fishermen living in small dwellings, mainly comprising wooden huts and semi-pucca houses, are also deprived of basic amenities, other than public transport, such as water and power supply, besides health and education facilities.
The government's apathy could be judged from the fact that its high officials hardly pay any visits to these villages to identify the problems being faced by the residents, which has further made the government agencies lax in making uplift plans for the areas.
The villagers have always blamed the government officials and elected representatives for ignoring these areas while planning and implementing development schemes.
A villager told this reporter that the lack of proper public transport system had made life more miserable for the residents as they had to transport all daily commodities from other city areas to the villages.
The fishermen living in these areas have urged the government to give top priority to resolution of transport problem in the villages, and direct the development agencies to prepare special uplift plans for these areas.
Mohammad Haroon, an elder of Mubarak village said: "Lack of basic amenities, particularly water, electricity and health is the foremost problem they are faced with and needs an urgent solution."
