KOHAT: The residents of the Shahpur union council here have urged the lawmakers to carpet a road in the Tor Chappar area, and repair a bridge in Kaghazai which has developed potholes soon after its construction.

Speaking at a meeting of the area’s social welfare committee here the other day, the participants reminded the lawmakers of their promises to carpet the road.

Former nazim Iqbal Afridi presided over the meeting, which was also attended by former councillor Qari Sher Zaman, Malik Ibrar Khan, Malik Shakir Bangash, Malik Imran Bangash and others.

The participants lamented that many parts of the Shahpur UC were still without water and roads. They said the road was turned into a pond whenever there was rain.

They said last month the people of Shahpur blocked the road at Jhandi railway station demanding water, carpeting of the road and end to excessive power loadshedding. Forced by the protesters, they said the district administration had promised to resolve all of the problems, but to no avail.

They said the public health and engineering department had installed a tubewell in Suleman Talab area, laid the pipeline up to Boraka and built an overhead tank. But the tank had been rendered useless as it was never filled to provide water to households, forcing the residents to fetch water from Suleman Talab.

They pointed out that the distance between Suleman Talab and Boraka was three miles and due to excessive loadshedding the tubewell could not run for the required time to fill the tank.

They called for putting the tubewell on solar power.

The locals also demanded action against the contractor for leaving work on drilling of a bore halfway.

Meanwhile, the police on Sunday arrested two robbers and recovered jewellery and foreign currency stolen from a house in Jungle Khel.

SHO Afzal Awan told journalists that a case of theft had been reported the other day, saying the police traced the thieves, Akhtar Hayat of Ghamkol Afghan refugee camp and Qasim of Jungle Khel. He said the arrested persons admitted to the crime.

He said gold earrings, 50 silver finger rings, foreign currency notes, a Kalashnikov and two pistols were recovered from them.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2020