July 09, 2007	Monday	Jamadi-us-Sani 23, 1428

PESHAWAR, July 8: People in flood-hit areas of the city, including the Badezai village, have criticised the federal and provincial governments for their “indifferent attitude” towards their suffering.

Badezai is one of the flood-hit areas in the city’s suburbs.

People demanded of the provincial government to conduct an inquiry against officials who had allegedly gotten lands for four water courses converted into residential plots. They said that because of this, floodwaters from the Khyber Agency passed through a single water course, resulting in the area’s flooding.

“Members of the National Assembly and the NWFP Assembly and the provincial minister concerned visited the area, offering consolation instead of compensation. They did not even provide any relief goods to flood-hit people,” said Abdul Wali, who lives in the Badezai village, about 5kms from the Peshawar-Torkham road.

Mr Wali, who was busy in rebuilding his house when this correspondent visited the area, said that he had not seen such heavy flooding in the Badezai Khwar (the water course) in his entire life.

“Gushing floodwaters swept through the village at about 2:30pm on June 28,” said Waheed Gul, whose house was also damaged.

He added: “We had to breach walls of several houses to let water pass unhindered but even then 50 houses were washed away in the village and more than 100 in the neighbouring Regi and Badshah Gul Garhi villages.

“We saw our belongings floating away in floodwaters. People from the Jamrud and other areas of the Khyber Agency have been visiting the area, looking for bodies of their relatives who had drowned,” Mr Gul said.

They said that there had been no advance warning or post-flood relief measures.

They said that more than a decade ago, when Regi township was planned on the Nasirbagh Road opposite their village, some government officials had arbitrarily blocked four smaller water courses. They said that they had converted the water channels’ bed into plots, forcing all rainwater to pass through the Badezai Khwar.

“There is no flooding in the other four water courses after the change in the route of the water courses.”

They urged the government to conduct an inquiry into the matter and take action against the officials concerned.

The said the main water channel originated in the Khyber Agency and fed the River Sardaryab. It is about 8 to 10 feet deep but during the recent flood, the village was submerged in five-foot-deep water.

The flood also devastated different crops.

“We are totally dependent upon stored wheat, but our stored crop has been washed away,” said Abdul Wali.