KOHAT: The newly appointed deputy commissioner Riaz Khan Mehsud has vowed to make the officials to discharge their duties with honesty to provide relief to people.

He was talking to journalists here on Sunday. The journalists complained to the deputy commissioner about half-hearted efforts of his predecessors to provide relief to the taxpayers.

Mr Mehsud said that the public would not be disappointed this time and every official would be made to discharge his duties honestly.

The reporters complained about unchecked price hike and non-display of price lists by shopkeepers and the administration’s failure to implement the same. They said that no action was taken against the encroachments, land grabbers and the corrupt officials involved in the substandard construction of roads and commercial plazas in the district.

The journalists also highlighted the sale of meat of sick animals and unhygienic conditions at the slaughter house, which was causing various diseases among people. The deputy commissioner assured to rein in price hike, hoarding of edibles and encroachments without any pressure from the business community. He said that he would also get the precious land along the abandoned railway track between Kohat and Thall vacated from the land mafia.

When his attention was drawn towards use of substandard material in the construction of Abaseen Plaza and delay in completion of work on the project by the tehsil municipal administration, he promised to take the responsible people to justice.

He was informed that millions of rupees had been spent on the carpeting of roads in the city, but they developed cracks and big holes within months of their construction due to the use of substandard material.

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2014