KP govt seeks cooperation of land owners in Dam’s construction

F.P. Report

TIMERGARA: The administration and authorities of small dams Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Saturday asked the land owners of Sanam Dam in Adenzai to cooperate the government in building the Dam at Asbanr.

A meeting between the Dam’s land owners and administration in this regard was held at Sanam with commissioner Malakand division Zaheer ul Islam in the chair. The director general small dams Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Iqbal Khalil, Lower Dir deputy commissioner Sarmad Saleem Akram, assistant commissioner Adenzai Shah Jamil Khan, representatives of land owners and over 200 area people attended the meeting.

About 74 land owners earlier had objected on the design of the dam and land compensation. They were demanding change in design and reasonable rate of their affected lands. The DG small dams Iqbal Khalil informed the land owners and the affected people that 104 kanal lands had been excluded and the dam would now cover some 400 kanals of land. He said the government had released funds for the project after the completion of its bidding process.

The commissioner Malakand division Zaheer ul Islam said that a competent committee comprised of representatives of affectees and administration officers would hold talks on rate fixation in order to compensate the owners with a reasonable rate. He said the committee’s decision would be final and there would be no compromise on Dam’s construction. According to official sources 70 to 80 people were directly affected by the dam to be built on Asbanr ‘khwar’.

The dam construction has been politicized and some political parties in the area wanted to make the project controversial. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister visit was postponed on Jan, 9 this year when he was coming to lay down foundation stone of the dam. Representing the affected people Tufail Ahmad, Khan Wazir, Akhtar Munir and others told the commissioner Malakand and DG Small dams that land owners wanted increase in land’s rates. They said the government should consider the owners’ demands and reservations. The commissioner said the government would remove all the reservations of the land owners. He however’ determined that the government was serious in construction of the dam.