CHITRAL, Oct 1: The farmers of Chitral have demanded of the government to ask the Bank of Khyber and other creditors to provide agricultural loans to them like other parts of the province.

In a statement issued here on Monday, a former councillor of Kosht union council Haji Khan said the season of wheat cultivation had started in the district but the banks had closed down their doors on the farmers.

He complained that all the banks, including the Bank of Khyber, had stopped loaning the farmers for the last three years which resulted in low productivity as the farmers were short of money to purchase quality seeds, fertilisers and pesticides.

Mr Khan said agricultural credits were made available by the banks in all parts of the country, but Chitral was deprived of the facility despite more than 80 per cent of the households of the district derived their sustenance from farming.

He demanded of the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and governor of the State Bank to look into the matter.

NATURAL DISASTERS: Chitral is vulnerable to a number of natural hazards due to its peculiar topography bounded by the lofty mountains of Hindukush range, and sensitisation of all segments of the society is needed to mitigate the sufferings.

Talking to Dawn on Monday, the regional programme manager of Hashoo Foundation, Sultan Mahmood, said his organisation had taken up the task earnestly by engaging one of the target groups of the district in disaster education activity.

He said in the first phase, 20 high schools had been selected in three union councils where students and teachers were being imparted training about the measures to be taken during natural disasters.

Mr Mahmood said the disasters could not be stopped altogether but their after-effects could be mitigated by proper preparedness. He said the programme would be extended to the schools of all the other union councils which faced potential natural hazards. He said the teachers and the students cold play primary role in creating awareness to this effect.