MANSEHRA: The people of Kohistan have demanded of the government to include their local language in the school curriculum as despite announcement by the government to impart primary education in local languages, their children are still denied that basic right.

The demand came during a public forum organised by the district administration at the government high school in Jalkot area on Tuesday. Deputy commissioner, Kohistan, Zafarul Islam, district police officer Rehmat Ali, project director, Dasu dam, Faqir Mohammad and representatives of other departments were also present at the forum.

The local people said that Jalkot area was still deprived of basic amenities and the government was not giving due attention to their genuine demands.

Malik Manan Shah, a local elder, said that their language was being neglected by the government, adding that they should be given their basic rights and their language brought into the mainstream. He asked the participants to convey the demand of including Kohistani languages into curriculum to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa textbook board.

Mr Shah said that their children were still deprived of health and education facilities. He said that there were no roads and people were still using pony tracks for transportation. “Due to absence of roads, patients particularly women and children die on way to hospitals in other parts of Hazara,” he said.

Speaking on the occasion, the deputy commissioner said that the government wanted to put the neglected areas on the path of real development. He said that all issues raised at the forum would be resolved. He also asked the local people not to create hurdles to the Dasu dam project, saying that the issue of land price would be settled in due course of time.

POWER OUTAGES: The business community here has threatened to observe complete shutter down strike if the ongoing spate of prolonged and unscheduled power loadshedding is not stopped.

“Our businesses have been badly affected by the ongoing prolonged and unscheduled outages and if this situation continues we would start agitation against it,” warned Hafiz Ijazur Rehman, the president of traders’ body, while speaking at a press conference here on Tuesday.

Flanked by other office-bearers, Mr Rehman said that he had already asked the deputy commissioner to play his role in ending the loadshedding. He claimed that the Peshawar Electric Supply Company had been observing loadshedding of two hours after power supply of every single hour.

The traders’ leader said that they were optimistic that the district administration would take up the issue with the Pesco high-ups and help resolve the issue. Mr Rehman said that Pesco should also issue a loadshedding schedule so that traders could plan and manage their activities accordingly.

Meanwhile, deputy commissioner, Battagram, Zareef Almani has said that refusal by parents to get polio drops administered to their children would not be tolerated, asking people to cooperate with polio teams.

He was speaking at a training session arranged for polio workers in Battagram on Tuesday. The district health officer, Battagram, Mohammad Khan Afridi and EPI coordinator Dr Saleem Khan were also present on the occasion.

Published in Dawn January 14th , 2015

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