LOWER DIR: Residents of Walai Kandao here area on Saturday held a demonstration against the police department for ‘grabbing’ their lands for construction of the police lines in the region.

The residents blocked the Timergara-Munda Road for some time and chanted slogans against the police department.

Speaking on the occasion, resident Ahmad Zeb Yousafzai alleged about 200 kanals of land owned by people had been used for construction of the police lines in Walai Kandao. He said the landowners had filed a petition in the Supreme Court, which had decided the case in their favour.

He said despite the court decision, construction work on the building had not stopped. He demanded of the government to implement the court order.

Jamaat-i-Islami’s former MNA Sahibzada Yaqub Khan has promised doing away with the prolonged power outages and low voltage and supplying power to upper parts of Jandol within a month or two.

Talking to journalists here on Saturday, he said a JI delegation led by him had met the superintendent engineer of Peshawar Electric Supply Company in Swat recently, who had promised to provide power poles and transformers for Jandol area within a month.

The former lawmaker said installation of new transformers would also help resolve the problem of power tripping due to overloaded transformers in Kambat, Darangal and Miskini Darra union councils. He said presently people of these union councils were being supplied electricity on alternate days due to overloaded transformers.

The JI former lawmaker pointed out that standing crops and vegetables had dried due to closure of the Balambat irrigation channel in the name of improvement and extension for last two years.

He said the JI delegation had also met with the executive engineer irrigation, who had promised expediting the construction work on the channel.

Published in Dawn, July 9th, 2023