Kaghan growers demand reopening of key road.

MANSEHRA -- The growers of Kaghan valley have demanded of the National Highway Authority to clear the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road of glaciers to facilitate cultivation of crops.

'We have to take seeds, fertilisers and other necessities to upper parts of Kaghan valley for cultivation but we can't do that due to blockade of the main MNJ Road by glaciers for almost six months,' farmer Zeeshan Adil told reporters in Balakot area on Wednesday.

Accompanied by local growers, Mr Adil said the NHA usually cleared the MNJ Road in early May by removing glaciers and landslides up to Babusar Top but the artery hadn't been opened to traffic even up to Battakundi area due to Covid-19 emergency.

'If this road isn't opened within few days, thousands of families of farmers will suffer,' he said.

Mr Adil said the people of Kaghan valley settled in part of Hazara division returned to own villages at the end of the winter season and began collecting exotic species of mushrooms, herbs and shrubs and took them to Rawalpindi and Lahore for import but that hadn't happened yet.

'The people can't reach the high-altitude areas of the valley due to the blockade of the road,' he said.

SIT-IN: Hundreds of workers laid off by a company executing the Suki Kanari hydropower project resumed protest near Paras area after Eid holidays on Wednesday.

They warned that they would block project supplies through the Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road on Thursday if...