November 9, 2002	Saturday	Ramazan 3,1423

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MUZAFFARABAD, Nov 8: Azad Kashmir PM Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan has announced a package worth Rs136 million for the people of the areas affected by the Indian shelling, along the Line of Control.

He directed the authorities to ensure that the relief goods and the financial aid must reach the affected people before Eid.

According to a handout, issued here on Friday, the relief package was approved at a high-level meeting, presided over by the prime minister and was attended, among others, by the chief secretary, Shahid Rafi.

Speaking at the meeting, the premier said his government was alive to the sufferings of the people living in the border areas, whose role in the Kashmir freedom movement and for the defence of the AJK territory was important.

The meeting approved a grant worth Rs70 million for the residents of the areas. It was decided that every family in the Neelum and Leepa valleys would be given a 100kg bag of flour while elsewhere in the AJK all those persons living within one-mile (1.6km) of the LoC would receive Rs300 each.

The meeting allocated Rs20 million as compensation money for the people killed or critically injured by the Indian army.

Of this amount, the dependents of the killed would get Rs50,000 each while the injured would receive Rs 25,000 each.

The meeting also reviewed the facilities being provided to the residents of the border areas and decided that Rs25 million would be spent through the local government and rural development department on water supply schemes, health and sanitation projects and on the construction of roads in the areas.