By Zahiruddin
CHITRAL: Due to the abysmally low allocation of the incumbent government for the development projects in Chitral during the current fiscal year, both the skilled and the unskilled labour force of Chitral have started going to the down districts to earn livelihood during the winter season in larger number than ever before.
A number of passengers going to the twin cities of Rawalpindi-Islamabad to work there as laborers told Chitral Times in the local bus stand here on Tuesday that the employment opportunities for the laborers has been reduced to almost zero as the work on the development projects of buildings, roads, water supply schemes, irrigation channels and protection structures have been stopped.
They said that during the last couple of years, no new development works have ever been started while the work on the ongoing projects have been stopped by the contractors rendering the laborers jobless.
“Although every year a fraction of the laborer force from Chitral used to go to the down country specially the federal capital and other cities of Punjab to worker there in building works till the advent of spring season, but this year the exodus is in unprecedented number.
In our village in Upper Chitral, either women and children or the male on the wrong side of sixty are left behind while the rest of them have left for the down country while till the recent past, the youth folk used to remain here in the winter season as they continued to work in the development projects”, they said.
They implored that due to the cessation of development projects by the government as well as the non-governmental organizations, the poverty is reigning supreme in the district where only government servants can withstand the rising prices of the essential items of daily life.
They said that in the down country construction sites, the Chitrali laborers are said to be preferred over those coming from the other districts due to which they experienced no trouble in finding a job there.
The group of laborers said that they worked in a building site in the federal capital last year for five months in the winter season during which they fully utilized their time to earn extra money by working overtime in the site after the stipulated eight hours for which they are paid extra remuneration.
The district head of one of the public works departments, requesting anonymity, confirmed that the allocations for the development for the fiscal year was nominal as a result of which work have been abandoned on the ongoing projects while not a single work could be started till the next fiscal year.
