People demand market price for land acquired for dam

MANSEHRA: People on Wednesday staged a protest demonstration, demanding market price for the land acquired by the district administration for the 840-megawatt Suki Kinari dam being built under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

“The district administration signed an agreement with the families affected by the project that they would be paid the market price for their land but we are still without payments and our houses have been destroyed,” a resident, Sadaqat Ali Shah, told a rally in Kaghan valley on Wednesday.

The Suki Kinari hydropower project, being built on the Kunhar River, is the first energy sector project being executed under CPEC in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The protesters, who were raising slogans in support of their demands, said that they would end their protest till they were paid appropriate price of their land. Another resident, Imran Shah, said that people were being expelled forcibly by the administration. “Our houses are being razed and the land is already acquired but we have not received the payment,” he added. He said the district administration had also announced to provide land for the graveyards, which submerged under the dam reservoir, but they were without an alternative land for the cemetery to date.