MANSEHRA: The National Highway Authority and local administration here has removed encroachments from the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road here in a joint operation.

The action led by assistant commissioner Qamar Zia Malik was carried out in Sandasar, Attershisha and Mundiar areas with the help of shovel and excavator machines.

Mr Malik told mediapersons that buildings and temporary structures put up in the right of way were pulled down. He said the crackdown on roadside encroachments would continue.

“In the next phase, we will demolish illegal buildings in Baffa-Pakhal and other tehsils of Mansehra district,” he said. The official said encroachments would be removed from Dodial to Chaterplan along the Karakoram Highway.

Official says action to continue

WATER CRISIS: The residents of urban area in Upper Kohistan district have complained about unavailability of drinking water and blamed their misery on the failure of authorities to rehabilitate the only water supply scheme of Kamila, which was destroyed in recent flash floods.

“The district administration and Public Health Engineering Department have failed to restore the water supply leaving thousands of families without potable water for the last four months,” Maulana Walliullah Toheedi told mediapersons the other day.

Accompanied by a group of residents, he said the people of Kamila and its suburbs had taken up the matter with the district administration, but it did not take any practical steps despite promising to restore the scheme within a couple of days.

The residents threatened to block KKH again if the water supply was not restored within a couple of days.

MARKET CLOSURE PLAN REJECTED: The traders here on Sunday rejected the government’s plan of closure of markets and shops at 8pm under the power load management mechanism.

“The business community has already been reeling under record inflation in the country and if we close our businesses, we will not be able to even manage our expenses,” Mohammad Hanif Awan, general secretary of the central traders body, told a press conference.

He said the traders had already been paying various levies imposed by the district, tehsil, provincial and federal governments and if their businesses were closed they would not be able pay those taxes.

Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2022