ABBOTTABAD, Jan 20: Power supply has still not been restored to the Kaghan and Naran areas although 15 months have passed since the October 2005 earthquake. This is causing misery to the people there.

The MPA from Balakot, Syed Mazhar Ali Qasim, has asked the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) officials to ensure that the promises made by the prime minister and president during their visits to the affected areas are fulfilled.

While talking to Dawn from Balakot, Mazhar Ali Qasim said that though the government had declared 2007 as the “year of tourism” but practically nothing had been done to revive tourism.

He said Kaghan, Naran, Shogran, Balakot were the main tourism spots where about 300 small and large restaurants with billions in investment and turnover had been rendered unproductive due to the damage inflicted by the quake. Last year only one per cent of the tourists could make it to that area. Closed roads and the absence of facilities in hotels and restaurants added to the misery of hotel and restaurant owners. Now they were at a crossroad as business had almost ground to a halt but interest on loans was mounting.

He urged the government to announce compensation to the business class there. However, he said, the government was dong its best to develop the infrastructure in the affected areas but local traders and businessmen were unable to emerge out of their financial woes.

He sounded an alarm over the government failure in providing cash grants and added this would be a bigger disaster for those unlucky ones who had survived the earthquake.