By pass road land owners re-occupy in Talash Dir

F.P. Report

TIMERGARA: Land owners of the Talash Kalpani 10 kilometer by pass road on Thursday ran tractors and ploughed their lands in protest against the communication and works department and ministry of finance Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for their failure to release funds both for land compensation and construction of the project.

Earlier dozens of the land owners belonging to different areas of Talash held a protest demonstration and chanted slogans against the government and concerned department. The protesters led by Muhammad Bilal and Nimatullah also carried banners and placards inscribed with slogans for releasing funds. The leaders asked the land owners to till their lands as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government seemed least interested to complete the project.

The project was first approved by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government in 2015 and Rs 410 million were set aside for it. Due to change in design the project was again included in the 27 development projects of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which were approved by the Provincial Development Working Party (PDWP) during a meeting chaired by additional chief secretary Shehzad Khan Bangash on Oct, 18 last year. The construction work on 10 kilometer long Talash Kalpani by pass road with a total cost of Rs 680 million was started in July, 2016. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa minister for finance Muzafar Syed inaugurated the project in 2015 and the land owners were promised that they would be properly compensated. The concerned contractor leveled the 5 kilometer long and 40 feet wide lands but the owners were not compensated so far.

The land owners complained that they had been visiting the offices of deputy commissioner Lower Dir, executive engineer communication and works, district nazim and the office of finance minister at Peshawar again and again. They said that Rs 320 million had been released for 271 kanals of land but none of the land owners had been compensated so far.