January 4, 2006	Wednesday	Zilhaj 3, 1426

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PESHAWAR, Jan 3: The World Food Programme (WFP) needs $10 million to meet the expenses associated to the grinding and transportation of 46,000 metric tons of wheat to be sent to earthquake survivors in the NWFP and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

An official said that the UN agency would approach donors to arrange for the expenses to be incurred on the grinding and transportation of wheat to be provided by the federal government, as presently it had no funds to meet the associated costs.

Amjad Jamal, a spokesman for the UN agency, said that the Pakistan government would provide 46,000 metric tons of wheat to the WFP for the quake-affected people.

“The WFP has sufficient stock of food for the survivors, but the agency needs funds to bear the associated costs on wheat grinding and transportation to affected areas,” the spokesman said.

He said the government would provide wheat from its strategic reserves, which it had stored in different parts of the country.

The wheat, he said, would be transported from Punjab and other parts of the NWFP to the WFP warehouse in Peshawar for grinding and then it would be dispatched to the quake-hit areas for distribution among the survivors.

The WFP had been feeding one million people in five districts of the NWFP — Abbottabad, Mansehra, Battagram, Shangla and Kohistan — since the earthquake hit the region on Oct 8.

Officials said that the UN agency daily dispatched 100 metric tons of food stuff, including flour, salt, edible oil and pulses to the five districts.

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