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| January 7, 2006 | Saturday | Zilhaj 6, 1426 |
Relief activities in quake-hit areas resume
ISLAMABAD, Jan 6: Relief activities in the quake-affected areas have resumed after remaining suspended in the wake of inclement weather, said Federal Relief Commissioner Maj-Gen Farooq Ahmad Khan while speaking at a press conference here on Friday. He said the local authorities and army formations had sufficient stock of relief goods while more were in the pipeline and there was no cause for any concern.
He said shelters in adequate number had been provided and large number of tents along with sufficient food supply boosted morale of the people in severe weather.
The relief commissioner said that reopening of blocked roads, building of winter shelter, winterisation of tents, improvement in ration stocks and preventing of winter-related diseases were priorities of the commission.
Talking about roads, he said Jhelum Valley road was open while Neelum Valley road, which had been blocked due to landslide, would require a day or two to open. Laswa By-pass was blocked due to landslide while Garhi Dupata-Chikar-Bagh road was blocked due to snow.
He said in the NWFP, Thakot-Allai road was open for light traffic and Thakot-Darband road, Balakot-Kaghan road and KKH were open for all kinds of traffic.
The relief commissioner said so far 74 tent villages had been established in Azad Kashmir which accommodated about 60,000 people. In the NWFP over 152,000 people had been accommodated in 531 tent villages.
Giving details of shelters, Maj-Gen Farooq said over 259,000 shelters had been constructed which included over 153 thousand built by NGOs. He said another over 38,000 shelters were under construction.
He said 666,000 CGI sheets had been distributed to the affected areas free of cost and 136,000 were in the pipeline.
Replying to a question he said a large number of kerosene oil heaters had been provided in tent villages to keep the people warm.
The federal relief commissioner said that so far 576 weather and incident related casualties had been reported while 2,914 people were still admitted in different hospitals. He said 68 field hospitals and 86 medical teams were operating in different areas. The general said 17.4 billion rupee compensation had so far been distributed among the affected people.
In answer to a question he said seismic survey of the affected areas was underway and it was expected to be completed by January 15. Responding to another question, he said the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank estimated $5.2 billion relief and rehabilitation expenditure while there were $6.2 billion pledges “but we would need more than that to fully compensate the damages caused by the earthquake”.
He told a questioner that there was no report of any epidemic in the affected areas, adding that there was no such threat in the future also. “All the measures are in place to avert possibility of another wave of deaths in these areas”, he added.
He said the plan to tackle accumulation of water in two streams created after blockage of nullahs in Hatian Bala was ready. He said the plan would shortly be presented to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz for approval.
“All elements are in place and we are just waiting for a green signal from the PM to execute the plan”, he added.
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