Traders observe strike in Jabori

MANSEHRA: Traders observed a shutdown and took to the streets to protest against what they called misappropriation of funds meant for construction of lavatories and waiting rooms in Jabori bazaar.

“The former district nazim, Sardar Said Ghulam, had approved funds for the construction of lavatories and waiting rooms but the contractor concerned, who is hand in glove with the tehsil municipal administration, withdrew the funds without executing both schemes,” the traders union president Abdul Wahid Khan told the protesting shopkeepers.

The traders alleged that the tehsil municipal administration had released Rs8 million to the contractor Mohammad Badar, but he withdrew the funds in February this year without executing both schemes.

They raised slogans against TMA and contractor concerned. “We have approached the contractor to carpet this road several times but our requests fell on deaf ears,” said Abdul Wahid.

The president of traders body said that men and women coming for shopping from nearby villages were suffering badly as there were no public waiting rooms and lavatories in the entire city. He threatened that if the TMA didn’t execute both projects within a week, they would block Jabori-Mansehra road to all sorts of traffic for an indefinite period.