Officials say high ups grabbing their land plots

LASHKARGAH (Pajhwok): Low-paid government employees on Tuesday staged a protest demonstration, claiming plots allotted to them under a residential scheme had been occupied by high officials in the capital of southern Helmand province.

Dozens of the governor’s office and other departments’ workers staged the protest in Kart-i-Lagan area of Lashkargah, the provincial capital.

One protester Abdul Samad told Pajhwok Afghan News they had been allotted plots measuring 48 acres of land eight years ago. But the scheme had been put on hold since then under various excuses and in the meantime, boundary walls were built on the plots by high officials during night time in an attempt to grab the land.

“Low ranking employees even cannot complain after they were threatened by the governor and today the employees who attended the demonstration were marked absent.”

But deputy mayor Ahmad Massoud Selab rejected the allegations of protesters and said the land belonged to the government and it would be distributed through the municipality to deserving people. He also said a joint commission had been formed to resolve the issue.

hs/ma