KOHAT, June 24: A heated debate was witnessed at the monthly meeting of the district council on Thursday on the issue of water shortage in Shakardarra town.

The shortage sparked riots, causing damage to government property last week.

Abdur Rasheed Khattak, Shakardarra nazim union council while defending himself in his speech informed the council that the riots were caused by unusual delay in the utilization of funds sanctioned for water supply schemes.

Similarly, he pointed out, the Oil and Gas Development Corporation which had promised Rs5 million for the area had released the funds after a delay of three years when the people had already lost faith in the government.

He demanded Rs200,000 for the repair of the union council building which was damaged by the angry mob and Rs400,000 for the water supply scheme in addition to the OGDC grant.

He regretted that despite his repeated requests the district government did not pay any heed to the aggravating water scarcity problem which had resulted in attacks on the government property by the angry people of the area.

Dr Matiullah Shah, nazim urban-5, in his speech accused the Shakardarra nazim of politicising the water shortage issue for personnel interests. He said the nazim did nothing to stop the people from damaging government property and blocking road and instead abused them when they contacted him for help.

Mattiullah Shah also pointed out that some government officials were involved in passing fake medical bills. He demanded that in future all medical bills be checked by a competent authority and a proper record of all the bills should be kept.

He informed the house that some of the suspicious medical bills were sent to the medical superintendent for scrutiny last month and they were found to be fake.

The house constituted a committee comprising Musarat Shafi advocate, nazim Arif Mahmood who is also the chairman of district health committee and Dr Matiullah Shah for conducting an inquiry into the issue.

Mohammad Iqbal, Nazim urban-2, demanded the transfer of SHO city accusing him of teasing innocent and peace-loving people. He said that the DPO had promised during the meeting a few days back that the said official would be transferred but he was still there with the same arrogance.