ABBOTTABAD: Chief Executive Officer of Cantonment Board Abbottabad (CBA) Ammara Ammar has blamed the National Highway Authority for the havoc the recent rain played with the public and private properties.

Talking to reporters here on Sunday, she claimed the NHA had left the drain along the Mansehra Road incomplete during rehabilitation of the artery, which caused flooding in the urban area.

She said the NHA project also included widening of six culverts on the nullahs, and it was supposed to be completed by May 2021. “Unfortunately, NHA couldn’t complete the project before monsoon despite repeated requests by the CBA,” she said.

Ms Ammar said the incoming water from various villages also added to the people’s woes as floodwater entered the residential colonies along the road.

Cantt board CEO says highway authority failed to complete work on Mansehra road before monsoon

She said an anti-encroachment drive had been started in the city, adding handling the situation arising out of rains was the shared responsibility of different departments.

She also said the CBA had issued notices to SNGPL for removing its pipelines along the road, but to no avail.

She denied that CBA had allowed construction of buildings along the nullahs, explaining that all legal formalities were completed before granting approval to the building plans.

Ms Ammar said CBA had also carried out de-silting of nullahs, especially the drain passing through the Hassan Town. However, she said floodwater carried with it large amounts of debris, silt and garbage that choked drains.

Ms Ammar said CBA had not received any funds either from the federal or provincial governments during last 15 years, and was solely dependent on its own revenue. Even the salaries of CBA employees are paid from the cantonment fund, she said. She said about 70 per cent of population of Abbottabad was settled in the cantonment, adding about 70 per cent of the total cantonment area was under-developed with no underground sewerage system. She urged people not to throw garbage in drains.

In a separate development, the Abbottabad police have arrested a man for killing an elderly woman and her two grandchildren.

SP headquarters Malik Ejaz Hussain told a press conference on Sunday that accused Moeen went to the house of his neighbour, Abbas, on Saturday night to get some utensils. However, he entered the kitchen and stabbed a widowed woman namely Taj Bibi, 75. Later, he killed her grandchildren namely Ghazian, 5, and Zeeshan, 3, by slitting their throats, and injured their mother Afshan Bibi.

The Donga Gali police shifted the bodies and the injured to the district headquarters hospital.

DSP Galiyat Jamilur Rehman said the police after registering FIR against the accused arrested him on Sunday morning.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2021