KOHAT: The Kohat deputy commissioner and the district social welfare officer have been urged to stop illegal land claimants from harassing the staff of family health centre (FHC) Babri Banda here.

The appeal was made by the project manager of Rahnuma Family Planning Association Pakistan (RFPAP), Ajmal Khan.

Talking to Dawn, he asked the two officers, being the chairman and secretary designate of Red Cross Society, respectively, to ensure implementation of a memorandum of understanding signed in 2002 by the community elders, social welfare department and the RFPAP for retaining the building, which has been functioning since 1980s.

Mr Khan said illegal claimants of the land had damaged a wall of the facility and were trying to occupy it and were also harassing the staff. He said the deputy commissioner should ask the revenue department to immediately settle the land dispute and demarcate the boundary of the (shamlat) joint property.

He alleged that the barren land was of no use to its claimants but they were using pressure tactics to get huge rent after knowing that RFPAP, which is running the facility, was a subsidiary of a foreign NGO.

Deputy Commissioner Kamal Khan Khattak, when contacted on Tuesday, told this correspondent that he had ordered the tehsildars and patwaris to go to the area and stop the demolition of the building till the settlement of the land ownership. “I have also asked Gul Bano, the assistant commissioner concerned, to summon all the stakeholders, including social welfare department, community elders and revenue department, and ask the claimants to produce proof of the ownership of land.

The FHC Babri Banda was established along the Rawalpindi Road to provide better mother-child healthcare to dozens of villages which had no access to the hospitals in downtown Kohat. The building was provided by social welfare department in 2002.

The centre consists of a lady health visitor, a medical attendant and a male and female social organiser.

The building was constructed by the Red Cross and the land was provided by the local community in 80s where RFPAP had established a mother and child centre (MCH). It remained functional for some years but due to lack of funding for payment of staff salaries and free medicines, the Red Cross handed it over to the social welfare department.

The social welfare department, after consultations with the Babri Banda welfare society, handed over the building to RFPAP where it established the FHC. But now a private party has claimed this building is their property and demanding its vacation.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2017