SHANGLA: The residents of Alpuri tehsil on Friday took to streets demanding rehabilitation of roads, water supply schemes, pedestrian paths washed away in the recent rainfall and flood.
The Alpuri tehsil residents including affectees from Pir Abad, Dehrai and other areas gathered in the district headquarters Alpuri while carrying banners and placards inscribed with their demands marched to Alpuri Press Club where gathered.
While addressing the protest speakers said that the main Bely Baba to Pir Abad road and other link roads were damaged in various points which forced them to walk for hours to reach their destination and also take patients in Charpoy.
Abdullah Khan, a local resident, said that six houses in Pir Abad union council only had been completely destroyed and 20 others partially damages as a result of recent rainfall.
He said the Bely Baba to Pir Abad main road was already in dilapidated condition but in recent rainfall it was damaged and its portions swept away in flooding water also in some points landslide fell on it.
He further said that the contractor had stopped construction work on main Bely baba- Pir Abad road years ago and yet resumed and it was reconstructing under the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority Erra.
Musa Khan, another resident, said that their houses were damaged in the recent rainfall but no one from the administration visited them and nor provided tents and other items for survival.
“We are poor people and work as coalminer and feed families back in Shangla but now do not have single penny to rebuild our houses and survival without roof is not possible,” He deplored.
Amir Chaman, another speaker at the protest said the Erra should clear the roads lead to their areas and Erra should provide funds for the main roads so that the contractor could resume work on it.
The protesters also set a deadline of a week if reconstruction work on the main road was not started they would stage protest at front of Erra office in Islamabad.
PROTEST AGAINST POWER OUTAGE: The residents of Puran tehsil on Friday blocked Puran-Alpuri road protesting against the power outage and low voltage as the authorities failed in their commitment made with them last Friday during negotiation with them.
The protest was called by a local elders committee after Friday prayers where a huge number of protesters blocked the main Puran-Alpuri road and staged a protest demonstration.
Sayed Ghafar, Nizamuddin, Najamullha, Khalid Khan, Jalal, Dayan Ghafar and others addressed at the protest.
They said that their charter of demand was to give them local electricity from the local hydropower power projects and end the excessive and unscheduled loadsheding and also fixing the low voltage issue.
They set another deadline till next Friday and they would block the main Bisham-Swat road at Shangla top and would expand their protests movement.
