PESHAWAR: Several residents of Kalkot village, a faraway area in Upper Dir, have expressed concern over illegal distribution of forest royalty among different timber contractors instead of the area’s royalty holders and have asked Chief Minister Pervez Khattak to take notice of the issue.

In a press release issued here, the elders of Kalkot area, including Ameer Mohammad, Gul Zareen, Mirza Khan, Umer Faqeer, Maulana Fazal Haq and others, alleged that several months ago the local administration officers had deviated from the legal mechanism of distribution of forest royalty and instead paid around Rs20 million to some persons who claimed that they had bought royalty from the royalty holders.

They said that a jirga was also held a couple of days ago in Kalkot, which decided that it would strive for the rights of royalty holders and continue efforts till return of the controversial amount from the forest contractors.

The aggrieved people said that the Anti-Corruption Establishment had been inquiring into the matter, but despite repeated notices the relevant officials in Upper Dir had not been providing them the record.

They said that the deputy commissioner had made commitment with them that the issue would be resolved till Jan 26, but so far no recovery had been made from the concerned persons.

They said that the government had ordered that in future all payments should be made to the individual right-holders and no payment should be made to the irrelevant people.

The elders stated that despite a clear mechanism devised by the government the officials concerned had handed over the royalty to some individuals who had deprived around 8,000 genuine royalty hodlers of their due rights.

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2017