Govt asked to provide facilities to Bara residents

BARA: The Bara Siyasi Ittehad has asked the government to honour the pledges and provide facilities to the people of Khyber tribal district.

Speaking at a press conference here, Bara Siyasi Ittehad president Shah Faisal Afridi, general secretary Zahidullah Afridi and others said the government should restore peace as the militancy and cases of robbery were increasing day by day.

They said the tribal people had suffered a lot due to militancy and even had to face displacement. The office-bearers demanded that the security forces should vacate the houses of the tribal people and school buildings.”We demand that the missing persons should be produced in the courts,” said Shah Faisal, adding the families of the missing persons were going through trauma.

He said the tribal people also had a boundary dispute with Mattani to Achini villages of Peshawar. Shah Faisal Afridi maintained the government should allow the tribal people to operate the Basey Baba stone-crushing machines as thousands of people have been rendered jobless for years.

He said the government had promised to the people of Bara and Tirah to establish industrial zones but it did nothing towards that end.Shah Faisal said that unannounced and prolonged loadshedding in Bara should be ended.

He asked the government to create another provincial constituency for Tirah. “We ask the government to take action against the owners of the steel mills in Bara for not installing the smoke filters as it was causing pollution and respiratory problems,” he said.

They asked the Tehsil Municipal Administration to ensure cleanliness in the Bara Bazaar. The government was asked to install the gate at the boundary of Hayatabad and in Shakas in Jamrud. They said the road from Bara to Ring Road should be repaired forthwith as the people were facing a host of problems due to its dilapidated condition.

The office-bearers of the Ittehad added that the highway from Toll Plaza on road to Frontier Road in Shalobar area should be constructed. They appealed the government to extend the duration of the tax exemption from five years to 15 years as the tribal people were still bearing the brunt of prolonged militancy.