Diamer-Bhasha Dam: Increased compensation demanded

More than 35,000 people will be dislocated and forced to leave behind their ancestral lands: protestors.

GILGIT:

Villagers in Goharabad and the adjacent valleys likely to be affected by the Diamer-Bhasha Dam have rejected compensation rates for their lands. They say that they will not allow work on the site unless the government revises the rates.

“There is sheer discrimination against us in the compensation rates offered by the government. We are not going to accept that,” said Noshad Alam, a representative of Goharabad, a village in Diamer valley, about 85km from Gilgit. He was flanked by dozens of other people.

This week, enraged protestors pelted the assistance commissioner’s office in Chilas with stones and blocked the highway in protest.

They said that more than 35,000 people will be dislocated and forced to leave behind their ancestral lands. But the government is not even offering them fair compensation rates, they added.

They accused Chilas deputy commissioner of cheating them, saying he kept them in dark about the notification of rates issued by the government in September 2010. They warned that they would launch a civil disobedience movement if the government refuses their “just” demands. They alleged that the district government was under the influence of a powerful lobby in Chilas.

The people demanded the formation of a committee with representation from every village for settling disputes in an amicable and transparent manner.

The village representatives lamented the lack of implementation of decisions made by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who came here after last year’s floods.



Published in The Express Tribune, June 22^nd, 2011.