HARIPUR, Nov 17: Shortage of potable water, poor communication and inadequate education and health facilities are major problems faced by people of remote areas of the Haripur district, said social activists on Thursday. “The responsibility for this state of affairs lies with government departments,” they noted at a zonal forum organized by the SUNGI Development Foundation.
District nazim Yusuf Ayub Khan, EDO community development Dr Fazal Mehmood Khan, EDO Agriculture Mehmood Elahi, nazims, naib nazims, councillors, officials of different line agencies and office-bearers of village-based organizations attended the workshop.
The speakers regretted that 90 per cent of Haripur’s rural areas had no roads and were without any facility for water supply, schooling for girls and basic health units.
“Villagers are forced to take their patients to hospitals on cots for lack of road communication. Buildings of basic health units are there in a few areas but without doctors, trained female staff and medicine,” said Miskeen of union council Barkot.
He attributed the incidence of poverty in remote villages to absence of veterinary hospitals and depletion of forest resources. In order to protect sources of livelihood, he suggested, the government and NGOs should coordinate efforts for extending facilities to such areas.
He also demanded agricultural loans to farmers having small land holdings.
Ms Aisha of UC Rehana demanded that women skill development centres should be established at village level “which would help reduce the incidence of poverty to a great extent”.
Muhammad Sadaqat of Human Development Organization said the state was responsible for providing basic amenities to the people but the community also could not be absolved of the responsibility of getting itself acquainted with their basic rights.
He urged participants of the forum to hold elected representatives accountable for showing negligence towards their problems. He also stressed the need of forging unity in people’s ranks.
Dr Fazal Mehmood said that CCBs provided the community an opportunity to resolve their problems by themselves and bring their areas on a par with developed ones.
He attributed the present level of under-development to lack of awareness and education among the people of rural areas.
District Nazim Yusuf Ayub Khan said that he was introducing a monitoring system at the union council level through which all the uplift schemes approved by any tier of the government would be watched and monitored by the UC nazim and his councillors.
He said that funds would be distributed equally and he would focus his attention on the development of remote areas.
RENTED BUILDINGS: Due to continuous influx of quake-survivors into Haripur, rent of let-out premises has registered a 100 per cent increase during the last couple of weeks.
The situation has added to the miseries of affected families, Dawn was told during a visit to different localities where surviving families have recently settled.
After the earthquake a number of survivors were shifted from Balakot, Allai, Battagram, Kala Dhaka and Muzaffarabad to Haripur and housed in tent villages set up by district government. However, over 95 pc of these people moved to rented houses in the Kangra Colony, T&T Housing Society, Sera-e-Saleh, Khalabat Township, Pandak and other localities of the district.
It was observed that initially owners offered them houses either without or for nominal rent on humanitarian grounds. In certain cases they also donated their household items and warm cloths. However, these owners later imposed or increased an already fixed rent.