MPA to hold katchery in Bang

Report RA Jaffar

CHITRAL: Member provincial assembly (MPA) Haji Ghulam Mohammad will hold an open katchery in Bang, Yarkhun, on Tuesday afternoon.

The DCO, DPO Chitral and other officials concerned will hear the complaints of the residents and order steps to resolve them on the ocacsion.

Chitral polo players seek govt patronage

By Our Correspondent


CHITRAL: The players of polo have demanded of the government to promote and patronise the game, which according to them was a source of attraction for tourists in the area.
Talking to this correspondent here on Sunday, they said that every year a large number of local and foreign tourists visited the area to watch Shandur polo festival. They said that polo was the most expensive game. They said that in the past, more than fifty teams used to take part in the district polo tournament but now hardly twenty teams turned up, owing to lack of official patronage.
A retired polo player, Taj Mohammad Figar, said that in 1970s the government fixed allowance for polo players, which was sufficient enough to meet the expenses of the horse. He said that polo tournaments used to be held twice a year and hundreds of players from the nook and corner of the district thronged Chitral.
He said that the game was highly popular among the rulers of the princely state of Chitral. The rulers used to play the game and keep horses ready for the war times as well. Regarding the present amount of allowance being paid to the players, a player said that it had not been revised since 1980 while the rupee had devalued manifold and the amount was quite nominal.
He said that the amount was enough just to support the expenses of horse for two weeks and most of the players had given up to keep horses because they couldn’t bear the expenses. The players said that the ministry of tourism should patronise the game to promote tourism in the area.
They also demanded patronage of other government departments and commercial banks like that of Chitral Scouts and Chitral police, which had polo teams and recruited polo players.--Dawn

Chitral local support bodies reorganized

Report Zahiruddin

CHITRAL: Local support organisations (LSOs) set up under the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) in Chitral, have been reorganised to enhance their functioning.
This was stated by regional programme manager of AKRSP, Sardar Ayub while addressing a meeting of the board of directors of the LSOs of Ayun and Kalash valleys (named AVDP) here on Saturday.
He said that AKRSP had set up more than ten LSOs across the district as the umbrella organisations of their respective village bodies for which financial support and training facilities had been provided to make them self-reliant.
Mr Ayub said that the credit of organising the scattered villagers into social organisations went to AKRSP which was launched in the district in 1983 with the task of rural development. He said that now time was ripe for these organisations to gain self-reliance.
He said that to achieve this objective, the AKRSP grouped the village organisations into LSOs and provided them with financial support, well-established offices and imparted extensive training to the office-bearers. They were also provided with exposure visits to the northern areas where the system was functioning successfully.
Expressing his confidence over the functioning of the LSOs, Mr Ayub said that they were generating local resources to meet their requirements.
He said that the LSOs were also promoting democratic culture because all the decisions were made after open discussion.
Regarding development work in the Kalash valleys, he said that a foreign funded livelihood programme had been launched there to bring about tangible change in the life standard of Kalash people who were suffering from poverty.
Mr Ayub stressed on the board of directors of AVDP to make the programme a model for other LSOs and work for its success with full dedication and sincerity.
Chairman of AVDP Rehmat Ilahi, senior social organiser of AKRSP Fazle Malik and others also put forward their suggestions to make the programme a success.

Mountain sheer-off displaces six families in Booni

Dawn


By Zar Alam Khan

ISLAMABAD: Residents of Nivazantek in Booni, about 70 km north of the Chitral town, were on Saturday evacuated to a safer place after a mountain started sheering off on their houses.
Talking to this correspondent on the phone from Booni, Syed Kausar Ali Shah, a resident of the locality, said after an earthquake last year the mountain overlooking their houses had started crumbling.
He said with the melting of heavy snow on the mountain, big boulders and stones started to fall on the locality damaging houses, orchards, standing crops and threatening public lives.
The residents left their houses about a week back and were staying with relatives in other parts of the Booni village till they were shifted to temporary tents at Kroi Junali on Saturday, he added.
Mr Ali said Focus Humanitarian Assistance, an NGO, had supplied them tents while residents of Booni were providing them other necessary items. So far there has been no assistance from the government side, he added.
He said MPA Ghulam Mohammad was supervising the relief operation and was in touch with the authorities concerned to ensure relief supplies to the affected people, while Tehsil Nazim Mastuj Shahzada Skendarul Mulk had visited the site and promised assistance to the affected people.
He called upon the federal government to activate the Disaster Management Cell in order to provide relief supplies to the displaced people on time.

Timely supply of textbooks demanded

CHITRAL: Parents have demanded of the government to make arrangements for transportation of free textbooks to government schools in Chitral.
They complained that last year, a lot of time had been wasted in this regard. They said that the district should be given priority in provision of textbooks due to its remoteness.
They said that the closure of Lowari tunnel should not be made an excuse for further delay in carrying the books as the books could be transported through Afghanistan.
“Chitral is spread on an area of 14,850 square/kilometres and contains 32 distant valleys and it will take anther two months to pass on the books to the schools situated there,” a local said.--Zahiruddin

Two rescued from Lowari Top

By Our Correspondent

CHITRAL: The police rescued two persons from the Lowari Top where they were caught by blizzards and admitted them to the tehsil hospital Drosh on Friday.
SHO Inspector Mohammad Khalid told this reporter that Maqsood Ahmed and Toti Khan lagged behind the convoy of passengers they were travelling with after crossing the Lowari Top and were caught by blizzards.
“On hearing the news about the missing passengers, police rushed to the spot and fortunately spotted them and removed to the nearest hospital,” he said, adding that doctors of the hospital were hopeful about their recovery.
Meanwhile, the residents of Chitral have expressed anguish over the ‘stubborn’ attitude of the federal government for not allowing passengers to pass through the Lowari tunnel despite repeated demands.
They said that passengers crossed the Lowari Pass in desperate conditions which had so far killed many people over the years. They said that in the month of April, there were dangers of avalanches and blizzards in the area and the passengers had no alternative route.--Dawn

Renovation of DHQ hospital park underway

Report GH Farooqui, Chitral

The Tehsil Municipal Administration (TMA) Chitral is
working on renovation and landscaping of a garden at
the District Headquarters Hospital Chitral.
The main purpose of the project is to provide pollution
free environment to the patients and other visitors of the
hospital. For this purposes, the Tehisl Administration
and the hospital administration hired services of Ajaz
Ahmed, a young forest expert and head of non-timber
forest produce of Chitral for planning and landscaping
of the garden.
The garden is approximately 125 feet long and 60 feet wide
(38 meters by 18 meters). So far the designing of the park
has been completed and different species of flowers and
siblings have been planted in the garden. A mini rose garden
with five rose species has also been set up in the hospital.
This garden will be an ideal place for party and open
workshops and other programs.
District Coordination Officer Chitral Mutasim Billah Shah,
Commandant Chitral Scouts Col Suhail Iqbal and Tehsil
Nazim Chitral Sartaj Ahmad Khan visited the hospital to
analyze the ongoing project and appreciated the efforts of
TMA for beautification of the hospital. It may be noted
here that the renovation work was launched by Sartaj
Ahmad Khan, the tehsil nazim of Chitral.