RAIN WOES: Ever since the monsoon hit Abbottabad earlier this year, the city is being called by its old name, ‘Lake Abbottabad’. Every single time it has rained in recent times, everything in the city — if not the city itself — floats on water. Vast areas have remained inundated and the newly constructed roads are no more. The drainage system in the area continues to be neglected by the authorities, and a commute within the city means hours spent on the roads. The relevant authorities should do something about it rather urgently.

Muhammad Kashif Rafique
Abbottabad

BANK ANOMALIES: I recently went to the Mandi Bahauddin branch of the Bank of Punjab to pay my sister’s admission fee. After waiting for a while, I was told that the challan could not be processed because the staff attending my case could not log in owing to some computer glitch related to personal ID. I was simply asked to go to “some other branch”. Why couldn’t some other staff present there do anything to process the challan?

Fahad Gondal
Mandi Bahauddin

METRO ESCALATORS: A majority of escalators installed at different stations of Rawalpindi metro are out of service for long, making things difficult for those who cannot use the stairs.

People opt for the lifts, creating a rush which is dangerous in the current situation of Covid pandemic.

The authorities concerned must address this problem as early as possible.

Adeel Ahmed Malik
Rawalpindi

TAX PAYMENT: The Excise and Taxation office in Hyderabad’s GOR Colony remains closed for months citing Covid restrictions, and whenever it opens, no services are offered owing to ‘problems in the online system’. On the parallel track, ‘agents’ get everything done once they are paid the ‘goodwill’ money. The provision of online tax payment facility is the only way out.

Dr Fateh M. Khan
Hyderabad

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2021