RAJOURI MARCH 29 (KNO) : Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs and Tribal Affairs Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali said the present dispensation is keen to abridge the urban-rural infrastructural gap vis-a-vis roads, water and power supply, health and education so as to improve quality of life in rural areas where majority of population resides. The minister said this while speaking in public meetings at Margan and Kangar Gali convened to have first hand appraisal of developmental issues and demands of the public.
Public from dozen of villages thronged the public meetings and projected their demands pertaining to provision of water supply, augmentation of electricity infrastructure, blacktopping and interlinking of main roads and up-gradation of schools .
At Margan, people demanded completion of last 3 Kilometres of Dhandkote-Margan road, water supply scheme for Margan, transformer, electric poles and hand pumps. At Kangar Gali, people from Karhad, Panihad, Ujhaan and Dhandkote stressed for earliest completion of water supply scheme Karihad-Panihad as they still have to fetch water for daily use on horses.
Demands for community hall, NT PHC, up-gradation of GMS Kangar Gali to high school, ration store at Kangar Gali, pension for old aged and widows, bank branch, post office and vetenery centre apart from blacktopping of Rataal-Karhad, Dhandkote-Kangar Gali roads, linking of Rattaal-Karhad road to Sokar-Prori road were projected and the earliest fulfilment of demands was sought by the public.
Decision were taken for construction of community hall and sanitary complex at Margan near Ziarat Sain Margan, community hall at Karhad, installation of 10 hand pumps with attached five thousand gallon tanks near hamlets in Karhad as short term measure for scarcity of water, starting of high school classes in GMS Kangar Gali and starting pensions for 100 identified beneficiaries of Karihad, Panihad.
The minister directed the concerned to ensure that decision taken are implemented within given time period. Directions were also given to the concerned agencies for completion of construction and macadamization of roads projected in the public meetings. Concerned revenue officials were asked to submit detailed proposal for establishment of Karihad as revenue village.
Zulfkar while speaking on the occasion said sustained efforts are made by the government to provide infrastructure in rural areas at par with cities under various initiatives such as Border Area Development Plan and Cluster Model Villages with declared aim to freeze migration from rural areas towards cities.
He said the development is a two way process which requires active community participation firstly in monitoring the assets of public utility being created under various schemes and then preserving them for thier long lasting impacts. The minister was accompanied by DDC Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, Ex Ens Nisar Khan, Zubair Choudhary, Munshi Khan and Mushtaq Raina, CEO RDA Dr Tahir Firdous, CEO Lal Hussain, CMO Dr Suresh Gupta besides other district and sectoral officers.(KNO)