KOHAT, July 3: The residents of the Kohat Development Authority (KDA) Township blocked the Kohat-Peshawar road and locked the authority’s offices on Tuesday in protest against water shortage and loadshedding.

The protesters — led by MPA Engineer Syed Qalbe Hassan, Nazim of Urban-IV Pir Dilawar Shah, Chairman of KDA Welfare Organisation Mohammad Iqbal and Col (retd) Mohammad Ateeq — blocked the road near KDA Gate No 2. Later, they marched towards the KDA offices and held a protest meeting right in front of the office of the project director.

MPA Qalbe Hassan said in his speech that they had repeatedly informed the authorities concerned about the problems being faced by the residents of the KDA Township for the last many years but to no avail.

He said that even though KDA officials were fully aware of the acute water shortage in the area and loadshedding in Phase 1 for the last several years, besides the non-supply of power to Phase 11, but they never took the complaints seriously.

He said that those who had bought plots in Phase 11 were still waiting for power supply. He said that since the KDA had failed to solve their problems, there was no need for its office on which the government was spending Rs2 million per month. He asked the project director to resign.

Giving a five-day ultimatum to the authorities concerned, he warned them of dire consequences.

He warned KDA officials that he would raise the issue in the provincial assembly and ask the government to take action against them.

Then the infuriated protesters locked all the offices of the KDA and again blocked the nearby Kohat-Peshawar road for all traffic.

They demanded that transformers and other gadgets installed 20 years back should be replaced with high-capacity equipment, keeping in view the enormous increase in population in the KDA Township.

The district coordination officer, Syed Shahab Ullah Shah, who is the chief executive of the KDA, arrived there and persuaded the MPA and other people to refrain from taking the law in their hands.

The protesters opened the offices after successful negotiations between the DCO and the representatives of the KDA Welfare Organisation, MPA and nazim. The DCO promised them that all their problems would be resolved but they should remain peaceful.

KDA LAUNCHES DRIVE: The KDA decided to launch an operation against those residents who had installed water suction pumps in their houses.

Similarly, Wapda had been asked to check the kunda system and repair faulty gadgets in some sectors, which would help in the smooth supply of electricity.