KOHAT: The local authorities have failed to allocate land for establishing the buildings for Rescue 1122 in Kohat city, the three tehsils and the adjoining tribal subdivision of Darra Adamkhel since 2018.

As a result, the 34-member staff of the rescue service, including the administrative officers, and the vehicles have been forced into a small makeshift space at the tehsil municipal administration, Kohat, thus limiting its coverage to only city areas.

Talking to Dawn, Ishfaq Hussain, in-charge of Rescue 1122 in Kohat, said he had held several meetings with additional deputy commissioner Shah Nawaz Khan who had been promising to locate buildings in three tehsils, the district headquarters and Darra Adamkhel, but to no avail.

Sources said despite making payment of Rs16 million to Kohat Development Authority by the Rescue 1122, the authority was not giving possession of a two-kanal plot in the Kohat city to the rescue service, resultantly it had been operating in a makeshift TMA building since 2018.

The sources said the communication and works department had been awaiting the issuance of the possession letter for last 10 months to float the tenders for construction of the Rescue 1122 building.

They said that same was the case with the rescue service buildings required in Shakardarra, Gumbat, Lachi, Garhi Mawaz Khan in the city, and Gandiali, where an academy was to be built for training of the rescue staff as they were presently trained in Lahore.

A KDA official, Asghar Banoori, when contacted, told Dawn that actually the plot allotted to the Rescue 1122 was reserved for the fire brigade department in the city’s master plan.

Similarly, he said the sector had been mentioned wrong in the allotment papers of the plot, for which a corrigendum was sent to the secretary local government for approval of the place for the rescue service. He said after many meetings the matter had been sorted out and now and they were awaiting a letter of sanction from the secretary after which the plot would be handed over to the rescue service.

Meanwhile, Azam Khan, an official in Darra administration, said the land in the newly-merged area was a collective property and that there was no state land available, where the building could be built for the rescue service. However, he said efforts were underway to convince the Akhorwal and other tribes to sell land for the purpose.

Ishfaq Hussain, in-charge of Rescue 1122, told Dawn that the Darra administration had assured him of negotiating the deal with the tribesmen for the land.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2019