KOHAT: The owners of guava orchards, a delicacy of Kohat, are switching to other businesses to help their economic conditions as growing the fruit is no more lucrative because of harsh weather conditions.

Jarwanda, and areas along the Rawalpindi Road, Bypass Road and Hangu Road remained famous for producing large quantities of the fruit for centuries, but the owners have now turned a major portion of the lands into building shops. Some rich people have turned their orchards into farm houses.

Naveed, a local, said he had inherited the business from his father, and his family was totally dependent on guava produce. But, they had to sell some guava orchards and rented out the others to meet financial needs , he added. He pointed out that a big guava orchard previously available for Rs20,000 rent for three years was now rented out for Rs100,000 for the same period, and the reason was that a very few orchards had been left across the district.

FACTORIES SEALED: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Food Safety and Halal Food Authority sealed two ice cream factories for operating without filtration plants and imposed fines on the owners on Friday.

Food safety officers Salman Ahmed and Mohammad Siraj said the ice cream factories were using normal water which had high density of microbes. They said the owners were fined Rs25,000 each and directed to install filtration plants within five days, or face action.

Mr Salman said the price of a plant was Rs250,000 due to which the owners were reluctant to install them.

POCKET GUIDES BANNED: Deputy commissioner Abdur Rehman has banned sale of pocket guides and printing by photostat machines near the examination halls.

He said no irrelevant person or material would be allowed outside or inside the halls and the violators would be proceeded against under section 188 of PPC. The ban under 144 would be valid for 30 days unless any order was issued against it.

On the other hand, the shopkeepers said the administration instead of banning sale of pocket guides should stop their printing and sale by the wholesalers.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2020