ISLAMABAD, April 28: Flood-affected traders of Garam Chashma in Chitral have appealed to the district government to help them rebuild their shops washed away during floods in the Gobor River last year.

Talking to Dawn on telephone from Garam Chashma, the traders said that for over one year they had been requesting the government to pay them compensation from the Rs10 million was announced by President Gen Pervez Musharraf for flood-affected people of the district.

A large number of shops and other structures built on the bank of the river had been destroyed by the flood. Some of them have been repaired but owners of over a dozen shops still await government assistance to restart their business.

The traders said they had constructed the shops on a rental land and had paid Rs40,000 to Rs50,000 as security to the owner, besides paying him monthly rent.

However, they said, when they wanted to reconstruct the shops, the land owner did not allow them and demanded further Rs20,000 per shop.

“Neither he allows us to reconstruct the shops nor refunds our deposited amount,” they complained.

They appealed to elected representatives of the area and the district nazim to intervene in the matter and provide them with financial assistance so that they could reconstruct the shops.