MANSEHRA, Aug 15: Hundreds of farmers and peasants took to the streets on Wednesday in protest against the alleged embezzlement of Rs420 million in the Plantation for Food Programme (PFP), launched in Mansehra by the World Food Programme (WFP).

The protesters, marching on roads carrying banners and placards, chanted slogans against the Water Shed Management.

Speaking on the occasion, Naib Nazim Jamil Ahmad, Akhter Hussein Shah, Jaffer Hussein Shah, Azfar Shah and others said the WFP had launched the PFP in the union councils hit by the October 2005 earthquake to stop soil erosion because after the calamity landslides were on the increase there.

The responsibility to execute the programme was delegated to the Water Shed Management of the Hazara Circle, they added. The programme was meant for the most affected union councils of Balakot, Satbani, Hangrai, Kaghan, Mahandri, Kawi and Ghanool but Water Shed Management Conservator Gul Muhammad and district forest officer Sher Muhammad embezzled the funds and launched the programme in other union councils. They also obtained food on fake names and sold it in the market.

They claimed that they bought trees worth millions of rupees and hired labourers to plant them to earn food. The Water Shed Management had promised that food would be given to every farmer according to a preset formula but farmers were deprived of the same as it was sold it in the market.

They said their protest would continue until food was given to every farmer concerned.

They appealed to President Gen Pervez Musharraf to order an inquiry into the case so that those who had looted the national exchequer were brought to book.