ISLAMABAD, Feb 28: The workers of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chitral chapter expect that the upcoming governments in the centre and the NWFP would give top priority to the development of the district to win back the grassroots support it once enjoyed in the area.

“Drastic actions are required to woo back the estranged workers, and allocation of a seat for the area in the next provincial cabinet would help achieve the objective,” said Saleem Khan, the lone PPP MPA-elect from PF-89 Chitral-I during his visit to the Dawn offices here accompanied by the district nazim of Chitral, Maghfirat Shah.

The MPA-elect said Chitral had long been ignored both by the federal and provincial governments. Areawise it is the biggest district of the province but funds are allocated to it on the basis of population which are not enough as the area has no income of its own while mineral, hydropower and other resources still remain untapped.

He said his first priority would be to develop healthcare, educational facilities and communication infrastructure which were all in a shambles.

He said torrential rains, snowfall, landsliding and other calamities during the last a couple of years had wreaked havoc on the already poor communication infrastructure. As a result, roads in Arandu, Birir, Bumburet, Arkari, Gobor and other areas were in a dilapidated condition and needed urgent repair. Besides, the valley also faces a crisis of power shortage as demand was increasing but the valley’s potential to generate over 4,000MW hydro-electricity had not been explored. He regretted that the Rs6.5 billion 106MW Golen Gol hydropower project had been left in the cold storage after preparation of the feasibility report and acquisition of land. He asked the federal government to expedite work on the project to resolve the power crisis in the valley.

About lack of healthcare facilities, he said a number of BHUs had been set up in various parts of the district but they were still without staff. The district and the tehsil headquarters hospitals also lacked staff and facilities. As a result, patients suffer a lot particularly in winter when the valley is cut off from rest of the country for five months.

He said the district also needed a university and postgraduate colleges. At present there were one degree college for men and one for women that too were in the main town. As a result, students after passing the HSSC examination either discontinue education or have to move to urban areas.

The district nazim, who belongs to the Jamaat-i-Islami, said people pinned high hopes in the future PPP government regarding development of the valley.

He said the NWFP government had sanctioned Rs100 million for rehabilitation of destroyed roads. He said work on the Mastuj bridge had already started while tenders had been floated for the construction of Booni-Shandur road and the damaged bridge linking the Yarkhun valley with other parts of the district.

They complained that the PML-Q candidates in the valley had utilised the resources of an NGO in their election campaigns. They alleged that the PML-Q candidates accompanied announced development projects including construction of roads, bridges and power houses and asked the people to vote for them.