KOHAT: A jirga warned here the other day to close down coal excavation if the district administration fails to form a royalty collection committee to settle a dispute between the Akhorwal tribesmen and the coalminers over quota for coal transportation.

The jirga chairman, Haji Baz Gul Afridi, said in a statement that they had been protesting for the last two months to form the royalty committee but the administration was creating hurdles.

The Kohat division commissioner and the deputy commissioner, he said, had also called a jirga and decided to form the committee, but their decision was yet to be implemented. He claimed that 16 out of 18 committees of coalminers were in their favor which is why they should be given major quota in the transportation of coal to end unemployment locally.

An official of the district administration, Azam Khan, when contacted, told Dawn that delay in formation of the committee was because two groups wanted their members in it.

CEMENT FACTORY CLOSURE THREATENED: The Togh Bala-1 village nazim and councillors have threatened to close down the local cement company as it was not giving them any benefits.

Talking to mediapersons, nazim Haji Rahman said according to the revenue record 80 per cent portion of the mountain belonged to the Togh Bala town but no money or welfare projects were started for the people of the area by the cement factory management.

He regretted that he had informed district nazim Naseem Afridi and deputy commissioner Matiullah Khan in writing about the issue, but to no avail. He said they would have to close the factory as a last resort to get their due rights.

REPAIR OF TRANSFORMERS: State minister Shehryar Afridi has said the local community will not pay for the repair of power transformers in future.

Talking to elders, he said he had talked to the Pesco chief to control the problem of low voltage and irregular outages which had made the lives of consumers miserable.

He said charging of thousands of rupees from consumers for repair of power transformers was illegal and that repair and replacement was the responsibility of Pesco. He said a committee would be constituted comprising elders for solution to problems faced by people.

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2019