SHANGLA: The people of Sangrai village here on Sunday complained their area had been deprived of basic f acilities like road, health and education.

They aired their grievances at a jirga organised by local youth, which was attended by elders and activists of various political parties.

`Organising the jirga was aimed to highlight the longstanding problems of the area,` Azeem Khan, one of the organisers, told Dawn.

He said the Sangrai village had been kept backward but now the youth had become educated and would claim their rights from the elected people.

The speakers said the lone threeroom schoolin the village which was established about 40 years ago was insufficient to accommodate 600 students, both girls and boys. They said a dirt track linking Ranyal to Sangrai was constructed by localson self-help basis about 15 years ago but due to lack of blacktopping several precious lives had been lost.

They said elected people had made commitments to widen and blacktop the road, but to no avail.

An elder said dwellers of the village had to bring water from far off springs owing to absence of a water supply scheme in the locality.

The jirga participants threatened to take to the streets if the local MPA, MNA and district nazim did not pay heed to their demands.

NGOS OFFICES SEALED: The district administration again on Monday sealed offices of NGOs working in Shangla for not obtaining no-objection certificate.

A source in deputy commissioner`s office told Dawn the NGOs` offices were sealed after expiry of a one-month deadline set by the district administration for them to obtain NOCs.The source said the offices would remain closed unless NOCs were produced. He said the NGOs` of fices were unsealed on the provincial government`s directive to allow them to resume their activities for a short period, but in the given period they f ailed to obtain NOCs.

Abdullah, project manager of an NGO, told this correspondent that getting an NOC from the home department took time. Despite repeated attempts the deputy commissioner did not attend phone calls to get his version on the matter.

STUDENT KILLED: An eighth grade student was killed when his motorcycle collided with a car at Aloch area of Puran on Sunday.

The student, Attaur Rehman, was going back to home on his bike from school when he met the accident. He sustained critical injuries and was taken to hospitalin Puran where he succumbedtoinjuries.-Correspondent