FARAH CITY (PAN): Complaining of a host of problems, residents of Farah province said they had been facing growing insecurity, administrative corruption, lack of development projects, joblessness and closure of a number of schools.
“We have never spent a day happy during the past ten years because of infighting and clashes all the time,” said, Abdul Wadood, a resident of Balablok district.
He said armed groups were roaming in the district in large number who most of the time got engaged in skirmishes with the security forces but civilians suffered casualties in the fight.
Hailing from same district, Gul Ahmad said insecurity continued to spread to other parts of the town with the district was virtually under the control of Taliban. “We have neither school nor a health center in the district. No development project has been implemented in the district during the past decade,” he added.  
Going into greater details, Gul Hamad said a number of people left for Herat and Nimroz in an attempt to live in peace and educate their children. 
Whishing not to be named a tribal elder from Gulistan district said insecurity, absence of schools and job opportunities forced many families to leave the district. He underlined bolstered security should be prioritized by the government, which would automatically generate job opportunities and prosper education sector. 
Asadullah, a resident of Khak-i-Safid district said with the exception of district head and police officers, no other government officers could discharge duties, which had multiplied problems of the people and paved ground for militants to keep up their anti-state and social activities. “Absence of speedy justice in the district forced residents to refer their cases to Taliban for settlement,” he added.  
Nangialai Mohammadi, a resident of provincial capital said most of the youths left the country for Iran illegally with most of them lost their lives or got injured by the Iranian border police. He demanded the government to create job opportunities by launching development projects.  
Sharifa Sadat, secretary for the provincial council said administrative corruption had been surged while development projects were not implemented. She said the quality of education was getting decreased in the province.  “Widespread nepotism in administration left many educated youth discouraged,” she added.
She said thousands of acres public land had been grabbed by warlords and influential with the officials backing. She noted farmers had no access to markets and government was miserably failed to facilitate the growers.
Abdul Basir Khairkhwa, head of provincial council said most of government institutions were not functioning in the districts and the total absence of judiciary in almost all districts of the province.
“Some locals refer their cases for settlement to Taliban while local elders sometime help resolve local disputes contrary to Sharia or law of the land. We conveyed the problems to government officials time and again but no action can be taken to ameliorate things,” he added.    
Mohammadullah, a farmer in Pusht Road district said they faced lack of health and education services.
Hamidullah, a civil society activist said there was no standard services in the provincial hospital, adding the lone hospital did not have the capacity to provide services to residents.
Shukrullah, an internally displaced person from Gulistan district who now was living in Farah in a camp said that “we do not have any land to build our home as warlords have grabbed our thousands of acres of land. The government is unable to take notice of the situation.”