MANSEHRA: Torghar deputy commissioner Matloobur Rehman has sealed the offices of chief engineer of Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) and district health officer after finding them absent from duty and informed the secretaries of both the departments in this regard.

“The people of the district have been suffering because of the prolonged absence of both the officers as we have to execute Rs800 million water supply schemes under the special development package of Rs4 billion. If we failed to spend this money within a specified period the funds would lapse,” Mr Rehman told mediapersons on Saturday.

He said that the new district of Torghar needed the full concentration of heads of the government departments for execution of development schemes and addressing people’s problems.

“If the PHED failed to spend Rs800 million before the end of the ongoing fiscal year we would be deprived of this money which the people of this remote district cannot afford,” the DC said.

He said that the same was the case with the health department and the DHO was supposed to appoint more and more doctors in the district and fulfill the needs of hospitals.

“I have written to the health and PHED secretaries about sealing of the offices and sought their support for posting of dedicated officers in their places,” he said.

LABOURER DIES: A labourer digging a well in a government school was buried alive when a nearby wall fell on him in Gari Habibullah here on Saturday.

Shafaat Ali was digging well in the government middle school, Talhat, when a wall collapsed and its huge debris fell into the well, burying him alive.

District nazim Said Ghulam visited the area and reviewed the rescue activities.

LOADSHEDDING REDUCED: The Peshawar Electric Supply Company has reduced power loadshedding in Oghi tehsil of Mansehra district.

According to the new schedule issued on Saturday, the loadshedding duration had been reduced from 12 hours to four hours at all feeders of Oghi sub-division. The new schedule would be followed from Dec 4 (today).

Also, power supply at Oghi feeder would be suspended from 7:00am to 8:00am, from 12:00 noon to 1:00pm, from 6:00pm to 7:00pm and from 10:00pm to 11:00pm.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2016