MANSEHRA: The residents of Balakot tehsil on Saturday demanded of the government to ensure an early reconstruction of the flood-hit protection wall of the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road in Shawal Mazullah area here.
“Delay in the protection wall’s reconstruction threatens the lives of road users,” Shawal Mazullah resident Ahsan Ahmad Khan told reporters.
Leading a group of residents, Mr Khan told reporters in Balakot that the recent monsoon floods destroyed bridges and roads in Manoor valley, including MNJ Road’s protection wall, but the relevant departments had yet to carry out the damage assessment survey.
He complained that the National Highway Authority had put up a board on the MNJ Road warning motorists and transport drivers about the danger to their lives due to the destruction of the road’s protection wall but didn’t reconstruct it even months after its destruction.
“We [residents] met high-ups of the National Highway Authority and tehsil municipal administration and sought the wall’s immediate reconstruction, but to no avail,” he said.
Meanwhile, the NHA has begun the repair of the MNJ Road from Mansehra to Balakot after a long delay.
The road users demanded of the NHA chairman to ensure quality work to promote tourism in the region as well as Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
RELOCATION DEMANDED: The residents have demanded the relocation of the forest division’s offices from Agror Tanawal to Oghi insisting the move will effectively check illegal tree felling.
“The government had announced four years ago that the offices of the forest division would be brought back from Mansehra to Oghi, but that hasn’t happened yet,” former councillor Mohammad Asghar told reporters in Oghi on Friday.
Mr Asghar, who led a group of residents, said the people would take to the street if forest offices were not relocated to Oghi within a week.
He said timber smugglers were involved in the felling of forest trees in Tanawal and Agror, but the forest department couldn’t stop them for having offices in a far-away area.
The former councillor demanded of the chief minister, chief secretary, forest secretary and commissioner Hazara to take notice of the matter for an early action.
Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2022