PESHAWAR: Residents of district Chitral on Tuesday demanded the provincial government to immediately release Rs 5 billion royalty of Chitral forest cutting, an amount the government not paid since 1984. They also demanded of the government to include district Chitral in ADP block and umbrella scheme, as the backward district desperately needed to be put back on the development path. Speaking at a press conference at press club, Razit Billah, former district naib nazim Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) said that Chitral had been badly damaged by natural disasters and catastrophic flood but had been completely ignored in the budget for the fiscal year 2016-17. He added that they had great expectations from the government to declare Chitral a disastrous district in the current provincial budget but the government disappointed them on this front as well. Accompanied by Muhammad Hussain Shah and Shahab-ud-Din, he expressed his serious concerns over the restoration of upper Chitral and Kalash valley roads, which had badly damaged in floods. He maintained precious lives had been wasted in the bridge collapse in upper Chitral because substandard material had used in the constructions of the bridges. The absenceof the bridges meant people had to endure serious hardships. Mr. Billah condemned the silence of elected representatives from Chitral over issues being faced by the backward areas. The residents thanked PTI Chairman Imran Khan, Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Parviaz Khattak and provincial information minister Mushtaq Ghani for merging two universities campuses of Chitral into a full-fledged university for Chitral’s students.