MANSEHRA: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Department has failed to transfer Rs360 million development funds to the accounts of 194 village and neighbourhood councils by end of June this year.

“The government was legally bound to release half of Rs720 million development funds before end of last fiscal year, but this amount is yet to be released and as a result we couldn’t release work orders to contractors,” Basharat Ali, nazim of Safada village council, told mediapersons on Sunday.

A group of village and neighbourhood councils’ nazims led by Mr Ali denounced the performance of the LG department.

“The bureaucracy is creating hurdles to smooth running of LG system, but we would not allow them to succeed in their evil designs at any cost,” said Mr Ali.

Mehmood Ahmad, nazim of Nogazi neighborhood council, said that the government had approved a total of Rs720 million funds for 194 councils of Mansehra district and half of the funds were released last year.

He said that the government was legally bound to release the entire amount before end of the last fiscal year. “If funds are not released within a week we would come onto the streets,” he said.

SHOPS FLOODED: A large number of shops, which were inundated by rainwater at Abbottabad Road and Karakoram Highway on Saturday night, couldn’t be opened on Sunday.

The two roads were flooded owing to blocked sewerage lines and water entered into shops.

“We have suffered financial losses as water entered into shops and our goods worth millions of rupees were damaged,” said Mukhtar Ahmad, an affected trader at Abbottabad Road. He said that civic agencies, including the tehsil municipal Authority, were responsible for their losses.

PETROL SHORTAGE: Local motorists and tourists coming to Kaghan valley in a large number have been facing acute shortage of petrol as police have restricted the entry of oil tankers and heavy traffic into Hazara at Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa boundary in Haripur.

Petrol is not available at filling stations from Kaghan valley to Mansehra since Friday morning.

Long queues of vehicles almost all of tourists could be seen at filling stations here.

Taimur Khan Swati, president of petrol pumps owners association, said that oil tankers were stopped by police at Jarikas area at Punjab-KP boundary which had created the shortage.

Published in Dawn, July 11th, 2016