SHANGLA: A remote village in Alpuri tehsil lacks health and education facilities.

Talking to reporters here on Saturday, former village nazim Munir said most of the people of Manaf Khel village council were living below the poverty line. He said residents of Kandow Manwan village had to take patients to hospitals in Alpuri and Swat due to absence of a health facility at great expense.

Habibullah, a social activist, said there was no water supply scheme in Kandaow Manawan and women had to fetch water from distant natural springs. He said the area also lacked maternal, newborn and child health facility.

The locals said students’ dropout rate was high because of absence of a girls middle school in the area as a middle or high school was 15 kilometres away in Alpuri.

Local Rehmat Ali said a government primary school with 360 students, including 60 girls, lacked drinking water.

The residents demanded of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, particularly information minister Shaukat Yousafzai, to take notice of the issues.

PROTEST: Residents of Karora area on Saturday protested against a two-day-long power suspension.

The protesters shouted slogans against the Peshawar Electric Supply Company and said Pesco officials told them on contact that the blackout was caused by a technical fault in the line and that they were fixing it.

The protesters dispersed after assistant commissioner revenue, Shangla, Azhar Zahoor, contacted the Pesco officials on the spot and directed them to restore power supply immediately. The officials told him that the supply would be restored within two hours.

MASKS AVAILABILITY TO BE ENSURED: The district administration has directed the traders, including owners of medical stores, to ensure provision of masks to the people amid coronavirus threat. The directives were issued after the news of masks’ shortage went viral on social media.

The administration officials also conducted raids in different markets and checked availability of the masks. The traders were asked to avoid profiteering and sell masks at Rs10 each. After the directives, the vendors displayed the mask rates and committed to ensure their provision round-the-clock.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2020