MANSEHRA: The people from Balakot tehsil here on Saturday blocked the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road for over three hours, demanding free electric supply from local dams.

They warned if the demand wasn’t met, they would prevent the prime minister from inaugurating a completed energy project in the area on Sept 17.

The protesters gathered outside Madni Plaza and marched on different roads before returning to the plaza.

“The government has notified free electricity for people of the areas where dams are built, so it should ensure implementation of the notification for our [Balakot] tehsil otherwise we’ll block the Sept 17 inauguration of the Suki Kinari hydel power project by the prime minister,” former MPA Mian Ziaur Rehman told protesters.

Demand free electricity from local dams

Another speaker, Mian Ashraf, said the government supplied free electricity to people of Kohistan and Chilas from Dasu and Diamer-Basha hydropower projects.

“This is our constitutional right to claim free electric supply from hydropower projects executed on our land and water resources,” he said.

The road’s closure troubled the people travelling between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan and within Mansehra district. They got stranded for around three hours on the major Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road until protesters dispersed.

ROAD’S REOPENING DELAYED: Residents of Torghar district on Saturday threatened to launch street protests over a long delay in the reopening of the landslide-hit Judbah-Darband Road.

“Since the blocking of the major artery by heavy landslides last month, we repeatedly took up the issue with the deputy commissioner and chief engineer for the restoration of traffic, but to no avail,” resident Zahid Khan told reporters.

Accompanied by a group of locals, he said the Judbah-Darband Road, which connected Torghar with the neighbouring Mansehra district, Hazara Expressway and Karakoram Highway, was blocked to traffic on July 30 when the mega portion got detached from a mountain and rolled down.

Mr Khan said the road’s closure troubled travellers but authorities insisted they didn’t have funds for the removal of landslides.

Another resident, Rabnawaz Khan, said patients were struggling to access healthcare in Darband, Oghi and Mansehra.

He warned if the artery was not cleared to traffic until Monday, people would stage a sit-in in Judbah.

Meanwhile, chairman of the Torghar district development advisory committee and MPA Laiq Mohammad Khan on Saturday said the provincial government approved mega projects to end the deprivation of residents.

He told a public meeting in Mungri village that he had launched a mega development project as MPA during the last PTI government and would do more for people’s development.

REFORMS: Lower Kohistan deputy commissioner Tariq Mehmood on Saturday said the education system in the district was being reformed to ensure people’s better access to higher education.

“We have decided to expel students who got admission to colleges on fake documents,” Mr Mehmood told an open kutcheri organised by the district administration in the district headquarters Pattan.

Heads of departments and principal of the Pattan government postgraduate college also attended the event and listened to people’s complaints.

The DC said the administration would ensure the presence of teachers and other government employees on duty.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2024