Delay in compensation: Dasu Dam affectees threaten to stage protests

MANSEHRA: The affectees of the 4300 megawatts Dasu hydropower project on Sunday demanded the government to pay them the compensation amount under the kitchen package.

“The federal government has been giving away the compensation amount to families displaced because of Diamer-Bhasha dam and such a package was also promised with us but yet to be paid,” Malik Ghulab Khan, a member of an 80-members committee of affected families, told a press conference in Dasu.

Flanked by other committee’s members, Malik Ghulab Khan said that the families displaced because of construction of the Dasu dam’s reservoir will stage protests outside the offices of the Wapda at different sites.

“We give Wapda and the government 10-days to hold talks with us and announce a kitchen package for the families displaced by the dam’s reservoir, otherwise, we will stage a sit-in outside its office,” Maulana Abdul Waris, another member of the committee, said.

He added that the families affected because of the mega energy project were fully cooperating with Wapda and the district administration for the early completion of the dam but would never deviate from their demands agreed by the Wapda in an agreement signed with locals in 2016.

“If the government doesn’t fulfil its commitment with us within the next 10-days, we would not only hold public rallies and protests but also stage sit-in outside the Wapda’s offices,” Shamsur Rehman Shams said.

Flour Shortage Hits Oghi: The people of Oghi have complained that wheat flour being sold on the subsidised prices at the specified outlets in the tehsil is not available in markets over the last week.

“The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government acclimated much of the supply of the wheat flour anywhere in the province but there is an acute shortage of it at the points specified by the food department in Oghi and its suburbs,” Azizullah, a local, told reporters in Oghi.

Being led by r Azizullah, a group of locals said that a 20kg flour bag was being sold at Rs1300 in open markets but the provincial government was selling the same weight flour bag at Rs880 but there was shortage of it across the Oghi tehsil.