GHALANAI: The lone girls middle school in Safi tehsil of Mohmand Agency is short of teaching staff.

Talking to this correspondent here on Monday, Haji Sobedar Safi, the former chief of Safi peace committee, said that there was only one teacher for 550 students enrolle d in the school.

He complained that the locals had requested many times to the education department and officials of the local administration to look into the matter, but to no avail.

The tribal elder said they had come to know from sources in the education department that at least 18 teachers were drawing salary, but only one teacher was performing duty in the girls school.

Sobedar Safi also urged the government to reconstruct the damaged buildings of health and educational institutions in the tehsil.

He said that Mamad Gat and Shawa health facilities had been facing shortage of staff for last seven years.

The elders also demanded blacktopping of the dirt tracl(to the famous Ziarat marble mines to ease the suffering of the truckers.

He complained the local administration was paying no heed to the development of the marble mines despite receiving millions of rupees in that regard.

The tribal elder said that Fata Development Authority had not constructed a single access road to the marble mines in the entire Safi tehsil.

He suggested that local administration formed a marble union at Safi tehsil like in Biazai and Ambar tehsils to help resolve the issues facing the mines contractors and workers.

The tribal elder also flayed the local parliamentarians for spending not a single penny on the development of Safi tehsil.

The tribesman said marble mining was the only source of income for the locals and that they would set up a welfare fund at the local level to rebuild the damaged schools and health units as the government appeared unwilling to execute welfare projects.