HARIPUR: The local people, especially commuters and motorists, face hardships owing to slow pace of work on culverts of Eastern Circular Road as the busy road has been closed to traffic for the last two weeks.

The tehsil municipal administration awarded contract of construction of culverts over the drain near DPO office about a month ago. Officials said that the culverts, constructed decades ago, were obstructing flow of water resulting in flooding the road.

The contractor started on the culverts about fortnight ago. Since then, the road has been closed to traffic. The road is used by people to reach DPO office, GT Road and district courts. The people coming from Sikandarpur, Doctor Plaza and Khalabat Township also use the same road.

“The work on road has put extra burden on people using rickshaw for reaching district courts or jail. The rickshaw drivers now demand Rs100 to Rs120 instead of Rs50 for taking people to railway station,” said a woman teacher, who travels daily from Khalabat Township to reach her school.

The pedestrians are also unable to use the road. “It has created problems for the residents of Haripur,” said Advocate Javed Qureshi.

The tehsil nazim and tehsil municipal officer were not available for comments.

LAWYERS: The anti-terrorism court adjourned hearing in the Mashal Khan lynching case till Thursday as lawyers across the province observed boycott of courts on Wednesday.

Call for the strike was given by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council to protest the murder of Muqadar Khan, a Takht Bhai-based advocate.

A total of 60 persons including students, university employees and some outsiders have been nominated in the FIR registered after the lynching of Mashal Khan, a student of journalism department at Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, on charges of blasphemy.

BAN: The district administration has banned cutting of trees and transportation of wood in the limits of Ghazi tehsil.

According to a handout, the ban was imposed after getting information about illegal cutting of trees and transportation of timber. It said that the violators would be dealt with under Section 188 of CrPc.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2017