Flood woes: Villagers protest BZU’s ‘failure to honour model village promise’

End protest on assurance that 20 more houses will soon be constructed.

MULTAN:

More than 50 families of a Muzaffargarh village affected by 2010 floods were assured on Tuesday gathered in front of Bahauddin Zakariya University and staged a demonstration over delay in reconstruction of their houses promised to them by the university administration.

The protesters alleged that the university had promised to reconstruct all houses in the Azeemwali village but backed out after construction of only 10 houses.

They said even some of these houses were not fit for use as construction had yet to be completed.

Iqbal Ahmed, one of the protesters, said the villagers had been living in temporary shelters since the flood. He said most of the houses in Azeemwali village were only partially damaged by the flood but the project team had demolished them, assuring the villagers that they would be replaced by a model village of 100 houses.

The demonstration lasted for more than four hours. It ended after the administration assured them that work on construction of 20 more houses would resume as soon as possible.

The protesters’ attempt to enter the university to meet Governer Latif Khosa was however foiled by the administration.

Project Director Aftab Sahu said the university had built as many houses for the village as was possible with the funds available to it. He said 12 houses were built with Rs2.5 million raised by donations from students, teachers and staff.

The project director said he had sent three letters to the Muzaffargarh district administration to inform them about the project and to request them to generate funds for the construction of remaining homes.

He said the university would construct more houses once the vice chancellor’s permission was available to resume the project. He said a fresh fund raising drive would be needed for generating funds.

Sahu denied demolishing any houses in the village. He said the university was handed vacant land by for the project.

Also, he said, the cost of the project had gone up after the villagers withdrew from their commitment to provide labour for construction.

Muzafargarh DCO Tahir Khurshid told The Express Tribune that according to the understanding reached between the university and the district administration, the latter was responsible only for providing land for the project.

He said the university had to construct 50 houses in the village at a cost of Rs18 million. He also denied any involvement in demolition of houses and said that the entire village was destroyed in the flood. 

Published in The Express Tribune, March 21^st, 2012.