SIALKOT, Aug 21: A small bridge over the river Tavi has not been reconstructed by the departments concerned for the last over one year despite Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi’s orders to the effect.

The all-important communication channel near Khobey Chak at Bajwat had collapsed during the flood in the Tavi in July 2005 and ever since Bajwat’s 85 border-area villages along the Sialkot Working Boundary have been cut off from the rest of the district.

Immediately after the deluge, the chief minister visited the affected areas and announced that the collapsed bridge would immediately be reconstructed. The irrigation and highway departments — the executing agencies of the project — have however yet to start work.

The situation has become all the more difficult for the villagers because the belly bridge over the river Tavi which used to serve as an alternative route to other parts of the district too had been collapsed. The people are at the mercy of boatmen who charge arbitrarily high fares for crossing over the river.

The affected people have protested many a time against the negligence of the authorities concerned, citing political wrangling among the local big shots as the reason for the delay. The area falls in the electoral constituency (NA-111, Sialkot II) of National Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Ameer Husain.

Expressing grave concern over inordinate delay in the reconstruction of the bridge, councillors Muhammad Shafi and Ghulam Husain told newsmen that the local people had been suffering on account of being away from work.