TIMERGARA: The Lower Dir wildlife and forest departments on Friday signed a three years contract with a local village organisation to develop and preserve more than 200 acres of forestry.

Sub-divisional forest officer (SDFO) Abid Hussain and SDFO wildlife Dil Mohammad signed the agreement with Fazal Habib, the president of ‘Jabo Ghar’ organisation of Soghalay Narai Shah village, at a function in Talash.

On the occasion, Abid Hussain said the agreement was part of the ‘closure’ component of the provincial government’s billion tree tsunami project. He said the department would provide a watchman on every 100 acres of land in order to preserve wildlife and natural forestry.

The official said the watchmen would get Rs15,000 monthly salary for three years for preventing deforestation, hunting of birds and animals and protecting the land from grazing. He said the KP government was committed to increasing forest cover to minimise environmental pollution.

Earlier, the officials also visited the site and declared it technically and socially suitable for execution of the project.

POWER PROJECT: Lower Dir Deputy Commissioner Attaur Rehman along with assistant commissioner Ubaidullah on Friday paid a surprise visit to the Koto hydropower project and expressed dissatisfaction over slow pace of work on it. He directed the construction company to dispose of waste of the project properly so that land along the river banks could be protected. He said the project should be completed by the start of 2019.

Sultan-i-Room, the project director, informed the officials that the power project costing Rs14 billion would generate 41 megawatt of electricity at its completion.

TMA EMPLOYEES: The Timergara tehsil municipal administration employees on Friday lauded the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government for upgrading them.

They were speaking at a meeting with their union president Faiz Ali in the chair. They said the government had won their hearts by upgrading their posts as it had been their longstanding demand. They thanked the chief minister and local government minister for accepting their demand.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2017