HARIPUR, Feb 3: The residents of Ghumawan and Chajjian villages and other small localities have expressed concern over the bad condition of the road between Chappra and Chajjian and claimed that it had caused several accidents and loss of lives.

In a joint statement, Haji Mohammad Aslam, Mohammad Zaman and Mian Mohammad Rafiq said that the conditions of the road had been deteriorating due to apathetic attitude of the elected representatives.

They said the indifferent attitude of peoples' representatives in the local government could be judged from the fact that the 13km-long strip, the only link between Chappra and Chajjian, was carpeted during the era of late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and over the period it had developed deep potholes while the traffic load on this artery had almost doubled.

They said the area people used pickups as the only means of communication because the road was not suitable for buses or wagons. The pick-up owners, they alleged, took advantage of the situation and charge Rs40 per passenger for a journey of just 23km.