MANSEHRA: The provincial government has approved Rs4 billion development funds for Mansehra district, said political adviser to the chief minister Zargul Khan on Tuesday.

`Though the PTI has no lawmaker from Mansehra, our government has earmarked Rs4 billion for development schemes in the district,` he told reporters here on Tuesday.

Mr Zargul Khan said work on the Siren River Right Bank Canal project would begin soon and that the project would boost agricultural production in the district.

He said the government would soon notify Baffa-Pakhal as tehsil in line with the last year`s announcement of the chief minister.

`I will quit the government and even politics if the CM doesn`t notify Baffa-Pakhal as tehsil. However, I cannot suggest exactly when this will happen,` he said.

PTI district president Babar Saleem Swati, who was also in attendance, said the government was striving to address the causes of delay in the completion of New Balakot city housing project designed to settle the Oct 2005 earthquake survivors from Balakot and Garlat Red Zone.

He insisted local lawmakers and successive governments were to blame for delay in work on the project.

Opposition leader in Mansehra district council Shahid Rafiq said his party, the PTI, had got a stay order against the bypassing of opposition parties during the execution of development schemes approved by the district council.

`The district nazim discriminated against councillors and deprived them of due share in the Rs500 million development funds,` he said.

VACCINATION DRIVE: A total of 730 personnel of Frontier Constabulary and police have been deployed to protect vaccinators in Mansehra district during the ongoing three-day anti-polio campaign. This was stated by district health officer Dr Shahzad Ali Khan while talking to reporters here on Tuesday. Dr Shahzad earlier administered anti-polio drops to schoolchildren during a ceremony held in his office.

He said the district administration and police were ensuring provision of foolproof security to pollo teams.

The DHO said upper parts of Kaghan union councils including Kaghan, Rajwal and Battakundi were snowbound and therefore, the polio campaign didn`t cover it on Monday.

`The local residents have migrated to Balakot. Our teams have been administering anti-polio drops to children at their respective points and thus, increasing the vaccination rate considerably,` he said.

Dr Shahzad said 5,300 children from marooned areas were given anti-polio drops at the points after they were shifted there. He said a total of 950 teams were formed to vaccinate 287,000 children in all 59 union councils of Mansehra district.

`Every mobile and fixed team is being overseen by 239 area in charges and 65 chairmen in the district,` he said.

He said the children of 4,000 Afghan refugees living in three camps in the district were also being vaccinated.

LAND RETRIEVED: The tehsil administration on Tuesday retrieved a piece of seven kanals of land illegally occupied by an influential family in Darah area of Oghi.

Assistant commissioner Altaf Hussain formally handed over the possession of the land to Iftikhar Ahmad of the public health department, the owner. He warned illegal occupants of land of strict action.