By Zahiruddin
CHITRAL: The district of Upper Chitral is yet to be functional and the residents of the newly created district are required to come to the Lower Chitral in connection with their needs in different departments while the same problem is faced by the government officials.
With the posting of deputy commissioner of the district in March 2019, the bifurcation of Chitral district has taken place but no department other than education has set been set up there due to which the people called the establishment of new district a futile practice.
A government official said that in the absence of the district accounts office in Upper Chitral, all the government offices are dependent on that of Lower Chitral as before and the concerned officials remained absent from their offices to attend the office there which greatly affected the routine work creating nuisance for the public.
The residents complained that the department of health has yet to make its presence in the district which has greatly hampered the working of the healthcare facilities while no district health officer of Lower Chitral has not visited the new district for the last four months.
They feared that the polio eradication drive may get a setback in the absence of proper management in Upper Chitral as the campaign is still being controlled from Lower Chitral while it needed district polio eradication committee which is not possible without DHO and district coordinator of expanded program of immunization.
The departments of forest, agriculture, wildlife, excise and taxation, finance, social welfare, irrigation, public health engineering, livestock, food and agricultural engineering have no offices in the district.
For obtaining licenses of arms, driving and hunting, the residents of upper Chitral are still bound to travel to the Lower Chitral for which they have to spend both their time and money as usual.
The district police has yet to be bifurcated as the post of district police officer has not been sanctioned while no district police line has been set up for stationing the required strength of the force.
The district judiciary for the upper Chitral is also to be established although upper Chitral has recently been declared as session division but district and sessions judge has not been posted.
The Chitral Levies functioning under the district administration with deputy commissioner being its ex-officio commandant is also awaiting bifurcation as out of the total strength of 494 personnel, only 66 are posted in Upper Chitral who are controlled from the Lower Chitral.
An official told Chitral Times that based upon the volume of population of Upper Chitral, 40 percent personnel of the force had been proposed to be allocated to it and out of the five vehicles of the force, two had been demanded.
When the additional deputy commissioner of Lower Chitral, Muhammad Hayat Shah was contacted, he said that the force belonged to the federal government at the time of bifurcation of the district due to which it could not be divided.
He said that, however, recently the force has been provincialized as a result of which it will now be divided between the two districts.
