MANSEHRA, Aug 31: The residents of various areas of the town on Saturday staged a protest rally against the suspension of water supply for the last one month.

Dozens of protesters marched on roads and chanted slogans against District Nazim Mohammad Azam Khan Swati, Tehsil Nazim Mohammad Farooq Khan and TMA officials. When they reached the Tehsil municipal administration (TMA) office, the Tehsil Nazim assured them of immediate restoration of water supply, on which they dispersed peacefully.

The citizens said they had been facing water shortage for many years.

Work on the Azheera water supply scheme has been started with a fund of Rs10.2 million but its estimated cost is about Rs220 million.

The source of Azheera water supply scheme in the eastern hills of Hazara has now started diminishing and the people who run water mills for grinding flour are protesting against the scheme.

The granite rocks found below the surface in the area can not be cut by the drilling machines used by local well diggers.

In June, the TMA authorities decided to dig two tube-wells in Dharmian and Motraian to meet the demand of water. A firm from Islamabad accepted the contract of digging the tube-wells with some special technology, but it did not take up the work. The district Nazim had also ordered use of Rs2 million allocated for beautification of the town for digging the  tube-wells.