MANSEHRA: Divers from Rescue 1122 are struggling to find the bodies of a woman and a minor girl swept away by water suddenly released by authorities from the Dubair Khawar dam, an official said on Thursday.
"Our search for bodies is hampered by rushing water in the Indus River," 1122 Rescue District Chief Sajid Ali told reporters in Lower Kohistan.
However, he said teams from Rescue 1122 would continue to try to find the bodies.
The woman and 12-year-old girl were caught off guard when Wapda released water from the reservoir due to high inflow without warning. Both were swept away by torrents.
A woman and a girl were swept away by suddenly released water from the Dubair dam
The incident occurred as the two were crossing the dry bed of the Dubair stream on foot, according to Ali.
PROTESTS: The chairmen of village and neighborhood councils here warned on Thursday that they and other members of the local body would stage street protests if the federal government did not withdraw a recent increase in the tax on land transactions.
Safada village council chairman Basharat Ali Swati told reporters that the government used to levy a 4 percent withholding tax on the sale and purchase of land, but it was increased to 10 percent in the latest budget. and doubled in the current budget. .
โThis tax is not acceptable to us at all,โ he said.
Joined by the chairmen of other village and neighborhood councils, Mr. Swati demanded the immediate withdrawal of an increase in land transaction taxes.
He claimed that people had stopped selling land because of the federal government's tax measure.
Mera Amjad Ali village council chairman Abdul Qayyum said both land buyers and sellers suffered due to the preparation of land valuation tables by Patwar circles as the government increased the price of land almost three times more than market rates.
He warned that if the "unjustified" taxes and the land appraisal table are not withdrawn, the members of the local corporations will take to the streets.
The council president complained that the federal government had also increased the advance income tax from 3 percent to 6 percent for sellers of land that do not report, and from 6 percent to 10 percent for buyers.
Federal Anjuman-i-Patwarian President Sarfraz Abbasi said the imposition of federal taxes and rising prices had decreased the rate of land mutation by nearly 90 percent.
Published in Alba, July 14, 2023
