PESHAWAR, Feb 13: The death toll in the devastation caused by torrential rains and snowfall rose to 120 in the Frontier province with at least 27 more people reported dead on Sunday.

NWFP Chief Minister Akram Durrani has sought financial assistance from the federal government for the people affected by rains during a federal cabinet meeting in Islamabad on Monday.

Mr Durrani on Sunday took an aerial view of the rain-affected Hazara and Malakand regions to apprise himself of the damage and the scale of relief required to restore the road network, irrigation channels and rehabilitate thousands of stranded people.

According to official sources, 16 deaths were reported from Kohistan, four from Abbottabad, six from Kohat and one from Dir Lower on Sunday. A woman and her three sons were killed in Lakaro Masud Zairat village when their house collapsed late on Saturday night.

"The chief minister has directed the district coordination officers to start distributing cash compensation among families of rain victims," said a spokesman for the chief minister.

Earlier, Mr Durrani told a press conference in Peshawar that he would request Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to immediately allocate a special fund of Rs100 million for the NWFP to facilitate relief work.

Official sources told Dawn that the shortage of funds being faced by the NWFP government was hampering relief work and posing difficulties for district governments in rehabilitating the affected people and providing food and other relief goods to families hit hard by the disaster.

"The special grant of Rs58 million announced by the chief minister on Friday for relief work has not yet been released by the finance department due to paucity of funds," said a provincial government official.

The situation, the sources said, was affecting relief work efforts. Officials of the Flood Relief Commission said that their request to the federal government for 500 tents and 1,000 blankets, made a couple of days back, remained unattended. Similarly, there has been no response to their request for the release of Rs100 million.

The officials said that several district governments had requested for the supply of tents after intermittent rains and snowfall, reported up to 10 and 12 feet in some areas, destroyed thousands of mud houses.

According to the data provided by the district governments, some 5,149 mud houses and 223 brick and cement houses collapsed due to rain. District nazim of Chitral, Shahzada Mohiuddin, told Dawn that relief work could not be started in his district due to bad weather.

Similarly, he said, no contacts with the residents of Broghal valley, situated at an altitude of 12,000 feet, could be established because the place was difficult to approach even by helicopters.

"On the directives of President Pervez Musharraf, some 85,000 tons of foodstuff would be dropped over Broghal valley through C-130 once the Chitral airport becomes operational after snow is removed from the runway," said the nazim.

He said that relief operations for over 1,000 stranded families of the valley would commence in a few days. Colonel Zahid Hussain, in-charge of the Inter-Services Public Relations, Peshawar, said that an operation room had been set up in Peshawar to monitor relief work in Fata.

He said that the army was ready to assist the provincial government in carrying out relief work. Deaths and injuries caused to women and children due to roof collapses and falling of boundary walls were also reported on Sunday from Kohat, Dir Lower and Kohistan districts.

District Kohistan Nazim Maulana Obaidullah confirmed the deaths of 16 people, mostly women and children, in the Charuna area after an avalanche hit four houses. However, talking to Dawn by telephone, Kohistan's district revenue officer (DRO) Subhanullah said that 23 people were believed to have been killed in the avalanche.

"The rescue team has not yet returned. However, according to unconfirmed reports, residents of all the four houses were killed after the avalanche hit the area at about 9pm on Saturday," said the DRO.

After the prolonged spell of rain and snowfall, people of several parts of the NWFP experienced a sunny day on Sunday which enabled the district governments to clear highways and remove boulders from roads.

The Bisham-Dasu Road, an official of the Battagram district government said, would become operational by Monday as the works department was likely to remove hurdles. The road, which is the main link to Gilgit from the Silk route, was closed for vehicular traffic after it was blocked by a massive landslide three days back.

However, several other roads in Battagram district, including Pattan road, Cairo road, Tores road and Duber link road, said the official, were expected to take more days to become operational.

ABDUL SAMI PARACHA ADDS FROM KOHAT: Five women were killed and three seriously injured when a house collapsed due to rain in Shakardarra town, 70km from Kohat on Saturday night, police confirmed on Sunday.