PESHAWAR, April 12: Residents of 52 villages have warned of a protest campaign against the government if they were not paid royalty from the revenue generated by the Warsak Dam.

Talking to reporters here on Wednesday, Rambel Khan, Arbab Shehrayar Khan Khalil and others said that the government had promised them royalty from the Warsak Dam but they had not been paid any despite the fact that the dam had started generating electricity since 1960.

The dam’s survey was started in 1945 and the government began work on the project in 1947 with the financial assistance of the Canadian government, but the project became controversial due to the ownership of the dam site by the Mohmand Tarakzai, Mulla Gori and Khalil tribes, which halted it.

They said that an agreement was reached among the three tribes in 1949 according to which the Mohmand tribe was to be given 50 per cent royalty.