Nathiagali a shadow of its former self

ABBOTABAD: Nathiagali is losing its charm and lustre for tourists as a result of unplanned expansion with problems such as shortage of clean drinking water, non-availability of parking space, no mechanism for solid waste disposal only adding to the bleak outlook.

On top of this, unchecked prices of food items and running of a number of illegal guesthouses are serving to repel the otherwise willing tourist.

No picnic spot has been developed for the tourists by the Gallyat Development Authority (GDA), which is mandated to promote and develop tourism in the area where major attraction for children is watching monkeys jumping on trees and offering them food.  Contrary to its mandate, GDA is not only not implementing a pro-tourism policy, it is in fact hindering any such effort. It is engaged in illegal allotments of cabins and commercial plots to its blue-eyed boys on the one hand, and creating difficulties for genuine investors at the behest of a few so-called elite, on the other.

Locals, especially elders of the area, have strong reservations about the management of GDA. They claim that this organisation has been engaged in protecting the rights of a few elite who reside there during the summer, and creating problems for the locals on their behalf. The GDA is supposed to be responsible for providing municipal services to the residents but it has miserably failed to do so for a variety of reasons. It had come into being in June 1999 with sanctioned grant-in-aid by then-NWFP government amounting to Rs 100 million with Rs 50 million as endowment fund and the remaining as seed money for expenditures. Before that the Hazara Hill Tract & Improvement Trust was looking after the affairs of this area since 1969.

The GDA was assigned development targets, which include development of tourism, land-use zoning, master planning and conservation of natural resources etc. But practically this department failed to achieve any of its targets. This organisation even failed to develop a mechanism for solid waste disposal in Nathiagali, Dunga Gali and Ayubia, with the result the tourists looking out to feast their eyes on have to endure many an eyesore instead as they trudge about the place.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 14^th, 2010.