MANSEHRA: The residents and tourists have criticised the authorities over failure to clear snow from the roads leading to Kaghan valley, including Shogran resort, despite the passage of many days.

The Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road was blocked during the recent snowfall in the valley suspending traffic between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan.

The people stranded in upper parts of the valley beyond Kaghan demanded of the authorities to clear the arteries linking their villages with rest of the district.

Though it’s a tourist season, few families are visiting the Kaghan valley, especially snow-clad mountains in Shogran, due to road blockades.

Mohammad Jalil, a tourist from Karachi, said he’d visited many countries but considered the beauty of Kaghan valley and Shogran matchless.

He, however, complained about poor access to the tourist resort die to snowfall. The visitor demanded the government promote winter tourism in Kaghan.

WOMEN PROPERTY ISSUE: The district administration has planned to organise a women-only ceremony to address their issues regarding inheritance.

“For the first time, we [administration] are holding the Revenue Darbar to address the people’s land issues through one-window operation,” deputy commissioner Dr Qasim Ali Khan told reporters here on Friday.

Besides deputy commissioner and district collector, the service points of the additional DC, assistant commissioner, tehsildars and patwaris of every circle in the district were set up at the darbar here for the provision of land documents, records correction, mutation, land registry, issuance of domicile certificates, and other related matters.

Dr Qasim said a similar women-only event, Revenue Darbar, would also be held.

He said many families denied female members their due share in property, so such women could move the Revenue Darbar to claim rights and resolution of the revenue department-related issues.

The deputy commissioner expressed concern about the rising coronavirus incidence in the district and said Covid-19 positivity ratio in Mansehra was 10 per cent against the province’s eight per cent.

He said the administration was testing over 300 people for coronavirus daily.

“Ours is the second highest testing tally in the province after Peshawar’s and therefore, the cases recorded in Mansehra are more than other districts’,” he said.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2020