PESHAWAR, Nov 9: NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani has said that he may ban reconstruction of houses in the quake-hit areas and rehabilitate the affected people in other places if seismologists suggest their areas are unsuitable for resettlement.

He said a team of Chinese seismologists and geologists had carried out a study after the Oct 8 quake and concluded that the region was not suitable for resettlement.

“The Chinese report is not very good from the resettlement point of view. But I have asked the federal government to engage Japanese in the work to carry out correct assessment,” he told a group of journalists at the Frontier House here.

Acknowledging difficulties in persuading people to come down from mountains, he said his government was making every effort to convince them to move to tented villages.

“We have gone to the extent of paying people for their standing crops if that was an impediment in relocation of people. But sill it is difficult to convince them to leave their mountain abodes and move to safer locations.”

Of the approximately 500,000 houses affected by the 7.6 magnitude earthquake, the chief minister said that nearly half of them had been destroyed.

If proved unsuitable for resettlement, the government would not allow reconstruction there, he said.

“If this requires legislation or actually forcing these people to leave, we will take every single step to protect their lives.”

He said the NWFP had identified two places for possible resettlement of the affected people. The sites included Jabba Farm in Mansehra and another in Haripur, he added.

According to new figures released by the NWFP government, the total death toll from the killer earthquake in the province stood at 29,360 while another 8,000 people had been reported missing.

“It’s been a month and there is very little chance of them surviving,” the chief minister said about the missing people.

The chief minister said the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and other donor agencies in their draft report to the federal government had estimated the damage caused to government infrastructure in the NWFP at Rs15 billion.

The NWFP’s own estimate of the damage to its infrastructure, including roads, hospitals, schools and other government building had been worked out to be Rs17 billion.

The estimates does not include the cost of damage caused to public property, including houses that alone, according to the chief minister, required another Rs20 billion to rebuilt.

Regarding fears of outbreak of epidemics in the quake-affected areas, he said medical teams had already been sent there while a team of veterinary doctors was also there to check the spread of diseases among animals.

He appreciated the role of all those who took part in the relief operations, including the military, civil administration, non-governmental organizations, political parties and private individuals, saying that the catastrophe was beyond the means of the provincial government.

The chief minister said the distribution of relief goods overall had been done in a transparent manner.

He, however, emphasised the need for involving the elected representatives at the union council level to ensure fair and quick distribution of relief goods among the victims.

Mr Durrani said relief operations had been streamlined and expressed the hope that the whole exercise would be completed in the next few weeks.

HASBA BILL: The chief minister denied that tabling the controversial Hasba bill in the NWFP assembly had any political motives.