SIALKOT, Aug 29: Residents of Bajwat and nearby villages during a demonstration on Wednesday protested the government’s apathy to protect them from River Chenab’s fast-paced erosion.

Muhammad Shafi, a local councillor, led the demonstration in which a large number of men, women and children from Khanu Bhau, Papeen, Saddarpura, Gangwal, Kaliyaal and Ghazipura villages along the Sialkot working boundary participated.

Speaker National Assembly Chaudhry Amir Hussain from NA-111 and Punjab Industries Minister Muhammad Ajmal Cheema, PP-121, are the elected representatives of the area. The provincial minister’s brother, Muhammad Akmal Cheema, is also the Sialkot district nazim.

Holding banners and posters, protesters chanted anti-government slogans and urged President Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Punjab Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi to take urgent steps to rescue them from this calamity.

They said the government had not announced any financial compensation or relief package for their rehabilitation so far.

They said a tussle between the local politicians had left the masses at the mercy of River Chenab, which had eroded over 12,000 acres of agricultural land and over two-dozen villages while several more were on the verge of devastation.

Local graveyards have also been washed away and the residents are spending sleepless nights for the last several days due to rapid erosion coupled with flooding threat.

The locals are dependent on seasonal crops and cattle, the production of which has seriously been affected and the erosion-hit people have started shifting to safer places to avoid further losses.