The village Sereh located 35-km away from Islamabad is almost devoid of basic civic amenities. The journalists observed this during a trip to the village, arranged by the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF) here on Wednesday.
The village with a population of over 500 people remained neglected by the government as it lacks public educational institution, health facility and basic physical infrastructure.
However, last year, the PPAF launched an Integrated Area Upgrading Project (IAUP), which was funded by the World Bank and executed by the Community Uplift Programme (CUP).
Through the programme, the PPAF in collaboration with the local community set up a mother and child health centre, vocational centre, community model school and adult literacy centre. Besides provision of water supply and sewerage system were also among the main components of the project, which the local community warmly welcomed.
In an interaction with the journalists, the villagers complained that government never paid attention towards resolving their problems for the last many years and their children had to travel for miles to go to schools, which was the main reason of high illiteracy.
Before launching of the integrated project, there were no roads and sewerage lines and the entire physical infrastructure of the village was in a dilapidated condition, they added.
According to the villagers, the politicians visited them only at the time of elections and never bothered to revisit even once the elections were over.
They said that through the PPAF programme, the village was provided with some basic facilities, but they were of the view that there was still a lot to do to bring the village at par with other rural areas of the metropolis.
Presently, scarcity of fuel is one of the core problems being faced by the villagers. Neither gas nor wood is available in the area, said a community organisation President Ahmed Din. The entire population of the village is poor and can not afford the gas cylinders, he added.
Earlier, CUP chief executive Iftikharur Rahman briefed the media team about the project. He said that through that programme, the integrated uplift projects were being launched in collaboration with the local community.
Comments
Comments are closed.