Kosht residents decry govt’s indifference to their hardships

KOSHT: The residents of Kosht at a meeting expressed resentment over the government apathy towards their hardships after the main road to the area was washed away by the river Mastuj bout two weeks back.

The participants of the meeting narrated the difficulties of the residents and regretted that no government department had so far taken notice of the issue. They said students especially girls going to the degree colleges at Jinalikoch were forced to travel to and from their institutions on foot spending hours in the scorching sun every day, a resident of the area told ChitralToday.

Besides, residents commuting to the area by taking a long detour through the Muzgol area were also facing hardship and have to pay double fares for travel and transportation of daily-use items. The meeting was told that over Rs. 200 million were approved for the rehabilitation and repair of the road to Kosht late last year. The road could have been rehabilitated in the winter when the volume of water in the river Mastuj was low. But an official of the communication and works department managed to get the work delayed in the winter only because he wanted to save his artificial ponds made for duck hunting at the riversides which were to be affected by the diversion of the river water for the construction of the road.
As a result, the work could not be started and with the onset of the summer the river water increased and washed away a major portion of the road in front of the Bumbagh fort.
Now the owner of the nearby land is not ready to rehabilitate the road by constructing it through his agricultural field, a participant of the meeting told ChitralToday.
The residents of Kosht decided to meet again on Sunday (today) to devise their future course of action to pressure the government to reconstruct the road on a priority basis.