‘Scrapping’ of hydropower project in Torghar resented

MANSEHRA: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) provincial government has scrapped the Mujahidin Hydropower Project for the execution for which its previous government had earmarked Rs4.269 billion in 2018.

“The PTI government had sanctioned various development projects, including the Mujahidin Hydropower Project for Torghar district, but its present government scrapped all those schemes without any solid reasons,” Zargul Khan, a former PTI lawmaker, told reporters here on Sunday.

Zargul, a former advisor of the chief minister, said: “This electricity-cum-irrigation dam planned to be built at River Barando in Torghar, could bring prosperity to the locals but the government cancelled it, which is unacceptable to us at any cost.”

He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan wanted to develop far-off and backward parts of the province and Chief Minister Mahmood Khan should follow suit and launch the work on these projects in the larger public interest.

“The previous PTI government had also approved 10 higher secondary schools for girls and a degree college for boys to bring Torghar on a par with the developed districts in the province but these projects were also scrapped by the government,” said Zargul, who was the former regional president of the PTI in Hazara.

He said that the Torghar was given the status of a settled district through a presidential order in 2011 but it was still lacking basic amenities and development.

“The fund for degree college was shifted to Swat and an agriculture research centre, which had been approved for Torghar, is being built in Haripur,” he claimed.