Residents take to streets against power outage

F.P. Report

LOWER DIR: Local residents at Samarbagh on Saturday staged a protest rally against the power outage, substandard subsidized wheat flour and its improper distribution and shortage of staff at Nadra office. The protesters blocked the main Shahi road for some time and chanted slogans against the government for its failure to meet their demands.

The rally was addressed by the Samarbagh tehsil chairman Saeed Ahmad Pacha, Haji Rehman, Hameed Khan and others. The speakers said that poor people were being humiliated by keeping them standing in long queues behind cheap and subsidized flour. They said that the women who wished to get registered in the BISP stood in long queues due to heavy rush while a few of them were registered daily.

The speakers said that the government had failed to control the artificial price hike that had made it difficult for the poor people to live in this blessed month of Ramazan. They said that the prices of edibles, fruits and vegetables had gone beyond the purchasing power of common people while the government did nothing to resolve people’ grievances. “We will lock the BISP office in Samarbagh if proper staff was not provided to it,” Saeed Ahmad announced and demanded of the government to depute proper staff at the Samarbagh BISP and Nadra offices.

The speakers complained the people of Darangal, Miskini, Asharkor, Tettar and Barchonai had no power supply for the last three days and despite repeated complaints, no one was listening to their complaint. The protesters threatened to bring all residents on the roads if the problems were not resolved within a week. Later the additional assistant commissioner Nauman Pervez reached the venue, held talks with the protesters’ leaders on which the protesters dispersed peacefully.
Also in the day the Awami National Party senior worker Buzarg Ahmad Jan demanded of the government to restore the previous procedure of flour distribution among the deserving people.