MUZAFFARABAD, Nov 26: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir here on Saturday decided to build five more organised tent villages in different areas of the state for about 40,000 earthquake survivors to protect them from the harsh climatic conditions. The cabinet meeting, presided over by Prime Minister Sardar Sikandar Hayat, was told that 25000 of these survivors were in district Muzaffarabad, 10,000 in district Bagh and 5000 in district Poonch.
A separate body - Camps Management Organization (CMO) - to look after the affairs related to such villages was also formed by the cabinet with director general sports Sardar Mohammad Nawaz as its head.
The cabinet decided that children rendered orphan by the devastating quake would not be given to anybody for adoption and would be kept in the SOS villages.
The nation building departments were directed to demonstrate teamwork and keep themselves prepared in case the AJK government was asked to carry out rehabilitation and reconstruction work which it was fully capable of, minister for works and communications Chaudhry Tariq Farooq told Dawn later.
The cabinet directed officials to speed up removal of rubble of the collapsed official buildings in old civil secretariat and other places so that the government offices could resume their functioning in an organised manner at the earliest.
It directed senior member of the board of revenue to select suitable sites for district-level government offices and also asked chief secretary to arrange manpower as and where required for organisations engaged in aid activities.
The cabinet took serious stock of alleged conspiracies against the prevalent political system in AJK, pointing out that demand for a national government could disturb that system which had been obtained by the people of the state after great efforts, Mr Farooq said.
The cabinet directed that all matters enjoying the approval of the prime minister should be deemed to have come into effect instantly and strict action would be taken against negligent officers.
The cabinet reiterated its appeal to the acting chief election commissioner to announce holding of elections against the four vacant seats of the AJK council and two seats of the AJK assembly.
He said that Rs5 billion had been distributed among the quake victims and their dependents whereas the AJK government estimates regarding the required compensation money were to the tune of Rs43 billion which he said would be provided by the federal government for distribution.
