MANSEHRA: The Pakistan Scout Cadet College, Batrasi, on Tuesday organised a three-kilometer marathon race to promote extracurricular activities among students off campus.

Educational institutions in the region had abandoned off-campus activities for season reasons shortly after the Taliban militants massacred the Army Public School Peshawar children late last year.

The 3km marathon race began at Dogha area of Batrasi, known for thick and green forests, and ended at the college’s main gate.

Students of the college’s Jinnah House, Iqbal House, Khyber House And Kaghan House participated in the event in large numbers.

The race was by Iqbal House with its students covering the three kilometers distance in eight minutes and 25 seconds.

The runner-up was Khyber House, whose students covered the distance in 12 minutes and three seconds, followed by Kaghan House with nine minutes and 15 seconds and Jinnah House with nine minutes and 14 seconds.

All three top positions (individual) were secured by the Iqbal House students.

Tahir Rasool stood first by covering the distance in six minutes and 20 seconds, while Basit Ali was the runner-up with six minutes and 22 seconds followed by Umar Iqbal with six minutes and 25 seconds.

College principal Abdul Hafiz said the activities outside regular academic curriculum were as important for the grooming of cadets as studies were.

He appreciated the district administration and police for putting in place strict security checks for the event.

RECORD COMPUTERISATION: The exercise to computerise the land and revenue records in Balakot and Oghi tehsils of Mansehra district formally began on Tuesday.

Deputy commissioner Aamir Khattak inaugurated work on the record computerisation project here.

Also in attendance was Fareed Khan, who leads the project in Mansehra, Batagram, Shangla and Swat districts.

He said the entire land and revenue records of Mansehra, Batagram, Shangla and Swat would be computerised in the next two years.

“Records will be computerised first in Oghi and Balakot tehsils and later in Mansehra,” he said.

Fareed Khan said the four districts overseen by him were also part of the government’s initiatives to computerise revenue records of 12 districts in the province.

The deputy commissioner said the patwar system would be free from discrepancies once the project was completed.

He said he was hopeful that the record computerisation project in Mansehra district would be completed ahead of schedule.

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2015

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