Scholarships offered to win over dam project victims

MANSEHRA: The Water and Development Authority (Wapda) on Tuesday offered affectees of the Dasu Hydropower Project development schemes and educational scholarships for their children if they don’t create hurdles in the smooth execution of one of the country’s mega energy projects.

“We accepted and executed all those projects that fall in our domain but you shouldn’t create hurdles in the smooth execution of this mega energy project, which will play a pivotal role in your, and your country’s prosperity,” Mohammad Khalid, the project director of Dasu Hydropower Project, told the jirga.

The jirga was attended by Deputy Commissioner, Upper Kohistan, Tariq Khan, District Police Officer Mukhtar Ahmad, MNA Malik Mohammad Idrees and affectees in Dasu.Khalid said that they were ready to enhance scholarships for the local male and female students and ready to change or execute local area development projects with the consent of affectees.

“Dasu dam is a guarantee to the prosperity of Kohistan and the country. We will have to bear the financial repercussions if the execution of the dam’s supplementary projects were halted,” he added. He also made it clear that all those schools which fell in the dam reservoir’s limits would immediately be relocated at an appropriate pace.

“We don’t want to waste the precious time of students and would reconstruct all those schools as existing ones are demolished,” Khalid said.Speaking on the occasion, local MNA Malik Mohammad Idrees said that Wapda should honour its commitments with the dam’s victims.