After a decade of total negligence, some development work has been launched in Bamyan. After four years of work on a 98-kilometer road construction, it is completed now and inaugurated this week. The $70 million project was funded by the World Bank and Japan.

Four hour distance from Yakawlang district to center of the province has been reduced to 80-minutes drive, a great relief for the neglected downtrodden people of Bamyan, who despite their utmost cooperation for the military intervention and support to the Government in Kabul, had received nothing but the only 2-km road asphalted by a private donation from Mrs. Laura Bush.

Residents of Bamyan have staged several unique and civil protest demonstrations against what they call the discrimination in aid distribution and development work by the international community engagement in Afghanistan the Kabul Government.

For instance, in a demonstration the road of main bazaar in Bamyan city was 'paved' with clay, to shame authorities on the negligence. Similarly in a previous creative peaceful show of protest, they had displayed a huge lantern on the main square of the provincial center, ridiculing the Government for failure to provide electricity, which is a matter of sheer political and geographical discrimination against Bamiyanis rather than lack of resources or hurdles for work.

The first of its kind, residents of the province also staged a night-time protest demonstration recently once again highlighting their plight of deprivation from basic needs such as electricity.

The roads from Kabul to Bamyan are risky due to insecurity on the way from Maidan Wardak Province, and the long road through Parwan. There is not a proper runway or an airport for commercial flight landings. Some private flights of UN, USAID and PACTEC operate for INGOs and diplomats.

This week, a small expansion project was launched. The $15 million project is to pave the small runway near Governor's Office in the province, to make it usable for commercial flights to connect the province with Kabul and rest of the country. Thanks to the Japanese Government, the project has been funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency.

Bamiyan University does not qualify as a proper standard university due to lack of very basic laboratory and library resources with few faculties. Despite the fact that Waras of Bamiyan is the only district in the entire country where girls' percentage of school enrollment has surpassed that of boys, the Government has largely neglected the province in education sector.

The government needs to reconsider the unequal development programs across the country and pay attention to the neglected provinces such as Bamiyan, Badakhshan, Daikundi and Ghor.