Peshawar Town-1: Beautification at the cost of civic amenities

[LahoreEstate]

By Akhtar Amin

PESHAWAR: The local government is spending millions of rupees on beautifying Town-1 but appears to be indifferent to the locals’ problems.

During a Daily Times’ visit to the Town-1’s union councils on Sunday, people complained of water and gas scarcity, dilapidated roads, insanitation, open manholes and overflowing gutters.

They said sewerage system was in tatters causing sewage and filthy water to accumulate in the streets and on the roads. They also said the area roads were in bad shape to the inconvenience of motorists and pedestrians alike.

The locals said regrettably, millions of rupees were being spent on the town’s beautification especially roundabouts, while people were without basic civic facilities.

Town-1, the historic area of Peshawar, has 25 union councils and is populated by around 58,090 people.

Shabbir, Gul Mohammad and Hafeezullah Khan, of Mohallah Tauheedabad of Wazir Bagh Union Council, said they had repeatedly apprised nazims, MNAs and MPAs of water shortage, poor gas supply, insanitation and broken roads during the last one year but the complaints went unheard.

Zahir, of Shuba Bazaar, and Naeem, of Shahi Bagh, said the Town-1 administration spent thousands of rupees to beautify GT Road, major intersections and the central prison’s front side but had no money to correct the poor drainage system.

They said water supply to Tauheedabad was inadequate. They said tap water was not fit for human consumption, adding more and more people especially children are complaining of water-borne diseases. There are also complaints that most of the Shahi Bagh, Halfa 1, Yaka Tut, Wazir Bagh and Bhana Mari municipal staff often remained absent from duty but no one bothered.

The residents of the Town-1’s centre complained of encroachments, illegal parking of vehicles alongside roads and supply of contaminated water.

They said supply of dirty water would continue until rusty, damaged waterlines were replaced and new sewers were laid.

Abdullah Khan, of Sarki Gate, said illegal parking of vehicles on both sides of Namak Mandi and Dabgari roads led to messy traffic in the area. He also completed of broken water and sanitation systems. He regretted the provincial government had yet to execute sanitation and drinking water supply schemes announced for the city for the current fiscal.

Other locals made a similar complaint. They said they were excited at the announcement of water and sanitation schemes for the city but were utterly disappointed at delay in their launch.

When contacted, Town-1 Nazim Shaukat Ali blamed civic problems on the previous governments and said he couldn’t attend to them until helped out by the provincial government.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...009_pg7_24