BATTAGRAM: After successful dialogue with the affected people by the district administration and National Highway Authority officials Construction work on a CPEC road resumed on Wednesday.
Due to non-payment of compensation for their lands according to the market value, the people affected had halted work on a stretch of a road being constructed under the CPEC from Matta Sofian to Chanjal area.
The people had requested the government to pay them commercial value of their lands and houses being taken up by the CPEC project.
The increased friendliness came about at a jirga presided over by deputy commissioner Sardar Asad Haroon and attended among others by district nazim Attaur Rehman Khan, land acquisition collector CPEC Tanveer, assistant commissioner Mian Javed Iqbal and representatives of the affected people.
Anwar Baig and Gul Mohammad, representing the affected people, demanded the government to fulfill their demands or else no more construction work would be permitted in their respective areas.
The locals were told that 15 percent of their compensation amount would be slashed by the NHA authorities which was not acceptable to them, Mr Baig informed.
He said the government should facilitate them with alternative means of living as their houses were going to be taken down soon. He stated that as their lands were located along the KKH they were treated as commercial land.
Gul Mohammad said from Kas Pul to Chanjal area the land was treated as commercial, and demanded the government should compensate respectively as was done in the case of Mansehra, Abbottabad and Haripur.
Additionally, he asked the officials to move the graves coming under the CPEC route.
The district administration officials guaranteed the affected people that they would soon get their compensation according to the law. Similarly, Deputy Commissioner Asad Haroon guaranteed the affected people that their rights would be protected by the district administration, but asked them not to hault the construction work on the CPEC as it portrayed a negative image in the world.
The DC for the issue created an action committee of affected people tasked with contacting the relevant authorities on the matter.
Mr Haroon also requested the CPEC officials to take care of the compensation matter of the affected people.
He ordered the NHA officials to start an office in the district headquarters Battagram in order to take care of CPEC related issues.
Soon after the successful dialogue, the affected people made it a point to reinstate the fact to the district administration that they would not stop the construction work on the project.