Politicians continue photo sessions over damaged bridges

The latest such drama was staged by the local PTI leaders who arrived at Muxgol taking along KP minister for sports and culture Mr Mehmood Khan and opened a plaque announcing the start of work on the construction of an RCC in the village. Two months ago, district nazim Haji Maghfirat Shah came on a whirlwind visit of the valley and tried to take credit not for the reconstruction of one but four bridges – Muxgol, Kosht, Pokelo Ser and repair of the Charun RCC bridge. But the nazim had to face the dressing down by the chief minister of KP when he was summoned to Peshawar and asked about the reasons for inaugurating projects funded by the provincial government. The nazim was of the view that as the CM did not come to Chitral despite being invited he had to open the work. But actually the reconstruction of the three bridges in Mulkhow and one in Lotkoh is being funded by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), said Terheek Huqooq-e-Awam upper Chitral president Muhammad Younus Lal of Kosht while talking to ChitralToday. He said each of the two authorities had committed Rs500 million for the reconstruction of the four bridges damaged in the 2015 floods. The three bridges in Mulkhow are Kosht, Muxgol and Pekelo Ser in the south of Kuragh. A suspension wooden bridge has been constructed at Muxgol but an RCC bridge will replace it. He expressed wonder how the district nazim could inaugurate a bridge costing millions of rupees when the district government had presented a Rs130 million deficit budget. Mr Younus added that soon after the devastating floods in July 2015, MNA Shahzada Iftikharuddin prepared a list of the damaged bridges to get them reconstructed. He presented the list to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at Kuragh after which both the federal and the provincial governments approved funds through the NDMA and the PDMA for the reconstruction of the bridges. In the contest for taking credit, MPA Salim Khan last month criticized the district nazim for inaugurating the works on bridges saying the funds were approved on the request of three MPAs from Chitral. However, Mr Younus said that the people of Mulkhow were fed up with the publicity stunt of the local politicians and wanted the start of work on the reconstruction of the bridges. He said he was not aware of any tender process or progress on the release of the funds but the politicians were only installing boards of their names claiming the launch of the work which was nowhere to be seen. (Published in ChitralToday on May 13, 2017, by Zar Alam Khan. Photo sent by Jamshid Ahmed).]]>