By: Gul Hamad Farooqi.
CHITRAL: Due to the recent heavy snow, the road of Hearth, Karimabad, Susom, etc., had been closed for all traffic on March 2, causing thousands of people living there plunged in difficulties. Village Council Chairman Sher Faraz Khan said while talking about the difficulties facing by closing of road, that the shopkeepers here have stock maximum of three days, but the road was closed for ten days, with snowfall and falling avalanches, and land sliding at different places.
The rocks and large stones were fallen. Since there is no hospital in the area, we were forced to put our patients on the shoulders to carry them to hospital. Chairman Sher Faraz Khan said that when the problems of the people started to increase, I reached Chitral from here by feet and brought in to the notice of Deputy Commissioner Lower Chitral. Executive Engineer of C&W Tariq Murtaza was instructed that the route be opened immediately. On behalf of XEN Tariq Murtaza, SDO Muhammad Adnan immediately directed the contractor Taj Rasool and his machinery were mobilized In the valley, a bulldozer and a was removing land sliding and debris fallen from the mountains and the road was opened for all kinds of traffic. He is still scared when traveling on this road and people have a lot of difficulties because this road is very narrow and on the other hand there is no protection or retaining wall towards the river on the bank of it. it is very difficult to avoid falling down thousands of feet down ravine.
Wasima Bibi, a female councilor in the area, said that the C&W staff were facing very difficult to open the road for traffic. She added that there is no hospital in the entire valley and that maternal children often die on the way when they are carrying to the hospital during maternity (delivery).
Fateh -ur -Rehman is also a resident of this area. He also highlighted his difficulties due to the closure of the route. He said that 680 families are living in hearth cluster and there was a severe food shortage and drinking water. If the route did not open in a timely manner, we could probably have been suffering from starvation. Responding to a question, he said that Saleem Khan, a resident of this Tehsil, had been a provincial minister for five years and member of the provincial assembly for five years but he did nothing for us.
Mirza Wali and the people here thanked the XEN and SDO of Communication &Works Department, who, in a timely manner, cleaned the snow from the road and opened it for traffic. They said that there was a kidney patient who had to be taken to the hospital for dialysis on daily basis, but due to the recent snowfall, when the route was closed, we could not take her to the hospital on time and she continued to suffer at home. –
A spokesman for the C&W department said that during the recent snowfall, they opened roads of Barinus Gol, Prait Valley, Pasti, Mori Lasht, Golain, Kujo Bala, Kuju Paine, Abdul Wali Khan Bai Pass Road, Hospital Road, DC Office road, Mughalandeh, Hoon Faizabad, Dom Shogur, Bakar Abad, Dolomos, Lingland School Road, Singor, Dinin and Gahtak roads were cleared from snow and opened for traffic. A C&W department official said on condition of anonymity that they had severe shortage of fund and last year’s Maintenance and repair fund were also not yet received. If the government provides them sufficient budget as per their requirement, the people of Chitral will not face any kind of difficulty in communication he added.
