MANSEHRA: The people affected by the 4200 megawatts Dasu hydropower project on Monday demanded fresh survey for the determination of the prices of their land and properties in line with the current market trends.

“Though I am PML-N member, I will firmly stand with the Dasu dam-affected people. The federal government is not sincere about resolution of their grievances as it started work on their land without making any payment,” MPA Abdul Sattar told a jirga in Barseen area of Kohistan. The event was organised to decide future strategy about the Dasu hydropower project.

The dam-affected people also staged a sit-in at the project’s site complaining the survey for land price’s determination had been suspended for four months.

Members of an 80-member committee formed by the affected people also attended the jirga and announced they won’t allow work on their land until the federal government settled all outstanding issues.

MPA Sattar said the families affected by Dasu hydropower project sought market prices of their land. “If the government can divide land acquired for Diamer-Basha dam into two categories, urban and rural, then why it can’t do so with the land being acquired for Dasu dam,” he said.

The MPA said the government was in the process of acquiring a land of 90,000 kanals for Dasu dam and that it even started work on the project but land and property owners still awaited any payments. He said Kohistan was a mountainous area with few plains so if the government acquired agricultural and plain lands in the region for Dasu dam, the people would lose major way of earning i.e. agricultural land.

The MPA said the affected people would never accept payments of their land in line with the previous survey carried out by Wapda. “I ask the federal government to sort out the matter with the committee of landowners otherwise all sorts of work will remain suspended and thus, causing huge financial losses to the exchequer,” he said.

Haji Ghulam Hussain, Haji Smunder Khan, Maulana Walliullah Tohidee and Maulana Attaur Rehmna, Raja Mohammad Arif also spoke on the occasion.

Later, landowners staged a sit-in at the site of Dasu dam and demanded fresh survey for the determination of the price of their land in line with the current market trends.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2016