Dasu dam project: locals resent hiring ‘outsiders’

WAPDA officials accused of nepotism in recruitments

In total violation of the agreement with the local people, the officers at the helm of affairs at Dasu Dam project are allegedly hiring administrative and non-technical staff from outside the district.

Official sources claimed that Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) officers had inducted thousands of non-locals in the mega-project under way in Upper Kohistan in violation of the basic agreement with the communities whose lands have been affected by the dam construction.

According to documents available with The Express Tribune, a total of 3,162 employees are working in the Dasu Hydropower Project in Upper Kohistan.

Of these 472 are foreign nationals, while 1,622 are local residents. The rest are people hired from other areas. Among the 1,622 local workers, 258 are class-four employees, including office assistants, peon, watchmen and such and the rest are labourers.

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 These people have been hired on a contract which will expire next year.

Community leaders from Dasu, the district headquarters of Upper Kohistan, and locals working at the project alleged that many officers have recruited their relatives without even bothering to announce the vacancies in the media, a pre-requisite for hiring in any state-run body They reminded that the Wapda’s agreement with the affectees of Dasu Dam states that no suitable candidates will be recruited from other districts in the presence of locals.

People in Dasu have been protesting against the recruitment of non-locals for the last several months.

 Following a number of meetings with Wapda officers, the local elders were assured that the authority will conduct scrutiny of hiring made after 2019 and remove anyone recruited in violation of rules and regulations.

 However, the locals say that scrutiny should start from 2016 and all illegally recruited employees should be fired. A delegation of local elders formed a Jirga and held talks with Upper Kohistan Deputy Commissioner Arif Khan Yousafzai.

However, when talks proved inconclusive, the Jirga decided to meet Hazara Division Commissioner Riaz Khan Mehsud in Abbottabad next week.