MUZAFFARABAD, Feb 13: The administrator of the Municipal Corporation of Muzaffarabad has urged national and international NGOs and UN agencies to shift their focus to the AJK capital and help mitigate sufferings of its residents.

“People of Muzaffarabad are still trying to come to terms with their huge physical and material losses. I have been suggesting at every forum that now NGOs and UN aid agencies should focus their attention on this town and its traumatised residents,” said Zahid Amin while talking to a delegation of British aid agency Oxfam which had brought 200 wheel-barrows, 200 shovels and 300 sanitary workers’ protective clothes for the civic body.

Mr Amin pointed out that around 40,000 residents of the capital who had moved out of the town after the quake were expected to return by the end of March and their rehabilitation would be another gigantic challenge for the authorities concerned.

“Particularly, removal of debris from downtown Muzaffarabad is a huge task which requires equally huge resources,” he said, adding that residents could not erect tents or build temporary shelters on their premises unless the rubble was removed.

Speaking on the occasion, Oxfam official Shafeequr Rehman said his organisation had been helping the corporation in cash and kind and would continue to further strengthen and facilitate it.