Making progress: Tor Ghar District Secretariat established

Hazara commissioner hopes shifting the secretariat will facilitate people.

MANSEHRA: The provincial government has allocated Rs4 billion for the uplift of Tor Ghar District, previously known as Kala Dhaka, out of which Rs1 billion has already been released. This was announced by Hazara Commissioner Muhammad Khalid Khan Umerzai at the inauguration of the Torghar District Secretariat on Monday.

Tor Ghar, which was recently made into a district, was part of the Provincial Administered Tribal Areas (Pata) for the last six decades. Its name was changed to Tor Ghar and it was officially declared the 25th district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in January this year. As it did not have the required facilities at the time of, offices were set up in Oghi Tehsil in Mansehra. They have now been shifted to Judbah in Tor Ghar District.

The commissioner said that the government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) has already disbursed the funds required for the district complex’s construction and the administration will make adequate arrangements for the finalisation of the proposed project without further delay.

Umerzai expressed hope that the construction of the district secretariat building would make life easier for Tor Ghar’s people and would facilitate them in resolving problems in their area. He said that changing the status of Kala Dhaka to a district would bring much-needed development in the area.

The commissioner termed the 84-kilometre Darband-Thakot roads the ‘jugular vein’ of Torghar. He directed the Construction and Works (C&W) Department to complete the project within the stipulated time period, so that long-standing problems concerning road links is resolved.

The commissioner also performed the flag-hoisting ceremony. Earlier Torghar DCO Muhammad Farid Khan briefed the commissioner about the arrangements for the government departments at Judbah and requested the appointment of staff in all district offices at the earliest.

Hazara Deputy Inspector General Dr Muhammad Naeem, Torgar Deputy Coordination Officer Muhammad Farid Khan, district heads of government departments and heads of different tribes also attended the ceremony.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20^th,  2011.