PESHAWAR: The rain-affected families of Biyar area in Upper Dir have criticised the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government for ignoring them.

Talking to journalists at Peshawar Press Club on Saturday, they demanded compensation for their damaged houses.

The rainstorm and flood on June 25, 2014 caused losses of nine lives and damage to several houses but many of the families were yet to get compensation, said Fazal Ghafoor, a representative of the affected people.

“The heirs of the killed people have been compensated but the poor people whose houses were destroyed or partially damaged were not paid any attention so far,” he said and recalled that the government had announced to support them but it did not fulfil its commitment.

Mr Ghafoor said that the flood had also washed away several shops and caused huge financial losses to the area people as they had no other source of income but the government did not pay them the compensation.

“Our locality is far away from the main road and local people are not aware about their rights. The relevant departments are also least bothered to fulfil their duties to enable the affected families to re-start a new life,” Mr Ghafoor said.

He said the government had also adopted discriminatory attitude by compensating people of other parts of the country and neglected those, who were living in backward Biyar village of Dir.

The affected houses and shops, he said, were 36 and the administration conducted a post-flood survey and promised to help the affected families but to no avail.

“We will start protest demonstrations if our demands are not met,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2015

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