PESHAWAR, Feb 14: Former deputy speaker of the NWFP assembly and information secretary of Awami National Party (ANP) Haji Mohammed Adeel has deplored the recently conducted operation to clear Kutcha Abadis on the Pakistan Railways land in Peshawar.

In a press release issued here on Thursday, Haji Adeel took exception to the demolition operation rendering a large number of families homeless in the two Kutcha Abadis - Christian Colony and Washing Ward Colony.

He said on the one hand government was making tall claims that Kutcha Abadis would not be demolished unless their inmates were provided alternative housing facilities, whereas on the other the railways department had rendered a number of families homeless who were staying in these areas for well over two decades.

According to him, the railways authorities, in the past, facilitated the Kutcha Abadis dwellers who used to properly pay monthly electricity bills to the railways. The land housing these two Kutcha Abadis, he added, could not be utilized for any commercial purposes or for any other purpose for it was situated along the railways track.

He said whereas the Frontier Province had been providing shelter for well over 20 years to refugees from Afghanistan, its own people had been deprived of shelter under the current chilling season.