KOHAT, Aug 3: The Oil and Gas Development Company on Friday sought proposals from union council nazims of Shakardarra for solving the problem of water supply on permanent basis and providing jobs to local people.

The company’s field manager, Abdul Majeed, called a meeting of nazims, naib nazims and councillors on Saturday to discuss their problems and demands.

The meeting was called after a group of protesters, including four women councillors, tried to stop work on the Bori-OGDC fields road. However, police arranged their meeting with the field manager after which they opened the road.

The councillors informed the field manager that the company had acquired land of local people at low rates, which should be revised. At that time, they said, the OGDC had promised jobs to family members of people affected by the project, but the promise had not been honoured even after five years. The field manager asked the councillors to submit proposals for permanently resolving the water supply problem, adding that the company had been providing Rs150,000 per month to Shakrdarra for water supply and also provided water through tankers during summer.

He promised to raise the issue of jobs at the higher level, but requested the councillors to be patient because it took time to process applications.

Earlier, the assistant manager of OGDC’s Chanda oil and gas fields, Mohammad Arif, told Dawn that they had been providing free health and education facilities in the area, besides employing local people wherever possible. He said the company had laid a network of roads in the area.

He said the OGDC had provided Rs5 million to the Shakardarra union council for laying water pipelines for house connections and work on supply of gas to the area was in progress.