MUREE, April 11 Local people filed a number of complaints about corruption and dereliction of duty by the officials of various public departments in Murree.

The complaints were filed with Member Punjab Assembly and PML-N local leader Raja Fayaz Sarwar at an “open kutchery” held in Jinnah Hall on Saturday.

People took patwaris of revenue department to task as according to him they take heavy bribes from locals for issuing land documents.

They said the construction of Islamabad-Murree Dual Carriageway (Expressway), had made the land on both sides of the road very expensive prompting a lot of irregularities in land documents and according to them lands are being sold on fake documents.

Locals also complained that the staff members of the forest department with the connivance of timber mafia were chopping precious trees of the forest. The staff also sold a number of trees affected by land-sliding Near Kashmir Point.

MPA Raja Fayaz Sarwar directed Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), present in the ketchery to investigate the matter and submit report within a week.

People also complained against Wapda about hanging wires and unannounced power load shedding, etc.

A large number of people complained about the shortage of teachers, heads of the schools, laboratories, libraries, play grounds and other facilities. They particularly mentioned the dilapidated building of Government Girls Degree College, Murree. The building was damaged during the October 8th, 2005 earthquake. —Correspondent