SWABI, July 11: The establishment of the Swabi Model School by the NWFP Welfare Board for the children of local labour community has become a bone of contention between the district council and leaders of various political parties and labour leaders.

Certain representatives of district council, sources familiar with the situation said, specially those belonging to Chota Lahor Tehsil, wanted the school to be established in Yaqubi union council (Lahor Tehsil) while the Nazimeen of other union councils and the leaders of the PPP, Awami National Party, JUI(F), JUI(S), Jamaat-i-Islami and PML(N), were interested in establishing it in the district headquarters.

The sources said the Labour Welfare Board, NWFP, had allocated Rs30 million for the school while the district council had allotted 30 kanals of land for it in Yaqubi union council.

However, the sources said, the continued row over the school had forced the NWFP government, Welfare Board and district council to keep the matter pending and the governor, who was expected to lay the foundation-stone of the school during his recent visit to Swabi, did not do so.

The sources said the allotment of the land and all other requirements had been completed in a hurry but the tug of war between the leaders of political parties and labour associations appeared to have stalled the matter. “It seems that it will be quite difficult to implement the plan of the school,” apprehended one source.

The high-ups of Labour Welfare Board, the sources said, had also been given to understand that the establishment of the school in far-flung Yaqubi would deprive the children of genuine labour community of admission.

Labour leaders demanded that the school be established in the district headquarters which would be easy to reach from across the district.

The labour leaders, the sources said, had informed the officials of the Welfare Board that Gadoon Amazai Industrial Estate was situated in Topi area and that the majority of workers had been living in district headquarters and its suburbs.

The district council, and those who supported its plea, said that majority of tobacco growers lived in Chota Lahor Tehsil and the designated area was easily approachable to them.