Suki Kinari power project: Landowners demand Rs1.16b in pending payments

MANSEHRA: The people whose land was acquired for the Suki Kinari Hydropower project on Sunday demanded the government to release their outstanding payment of Rs1.16 billion.

“This mega energy project, built on the Kunhar River in Kaghan valley, will soon help address the electricity shortfall in the country, yet we have not received compensation for our land, which was acquired in 2017,” Syed Humair Shah, one of the affected people, told reporters.

Flanked by a group of affectees, he urged MNA Sardar Mohammad Yousuf, recently inducted into the federal cabinet as a minister, to play a role in securing the release of the Rs1.16 billion.

“The technical summary, compiled on the orders of then-Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, recommended a payment of Rs1.16 billion for our houses and land acquired for the dam in 2017. However, the government has yet to release that amount,” Shah said.

Shamsuddin, another affectee, told reporters that the 880-megawatts power project had recently been completed and had begun trial production.“We, the people of Kaghan, Paras, and Sawa union councils, have rendered great sacrifices as our ancestral graves were submerged in the dam’s reservoir. We should be given priority in employment,” he added.

Qari Hameedur Rehman said that under a welfare scheme for affected families, the government had approved a health facility and a school for one of the union councils.“We demand similar facilities for the people of Kaghan Union Council, who also contributed significantly to the construction of this mega energy project,” he added.He also warned that they would block the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road if the government did not meet their demands within four weeks.