ISLAMABAD, March 10: Chief Relief Commissioner Maj-Gen Farooq Ahmad Khan has ruled out forced relocation of quake survivors from relief camps.
Addressing a press conference here on Friday, he dispelled an impression that all relief camps would be closed by March 31.
“There is no deadline for this,” he stressed and said a package of incentives including one-month ration, transport, blankets and tents were being offered to encourage voluntary repatriation.
He said the Erra would distribute Rs8 billion among quake-affected people in the NWFP and Azad Kashmir for reconstruction of houses in the next few months.
He said the quake-hit people had already received Rs25,000 and the second instalment of Rs75,000 would be paid over the next few weeks.
He said expeditious arrangements for encashment of cheques were being made through post offices and additional mobile bank teams.
He said that those who would not be able leave for various reasons would be accommodated in camps that could be managed.
Replying to a question, he said no international NGO has been asked to stop relief operation in the quake-hit areas.
He said the thinning out of armed forces from the quake stricken areas had already started and additional formations deployed in the areas would be withdrawn by the end of the month.
He said the number of troops to be withdrawn would be in thousands.
He said that the medical teams of Cuba, the US, Norway and Italy donated the field hospitals after their departure.
Mr Khan said measures were being taken to avoid outbreak of any epidemic in relief camps due to the rising temperature. He said efforts were underway to keep the main and secondary roads open which were closed due to landslides in Azad Kashmir and the NWFP.
He said all the telephone lines as well as digital exchanges had been restored.
About the distribution of relief goods, he said more than 870,600 quilts, 5,070,000 blankets and 73,400 tons of rations and medicines had been distributed among the affected people.
Maj-Gen Farooq said that more than 370,000 shelters, including 175,000 constructed by NGOs, had been provided to the quake-hit people and 39,600 shelters were under construction.
He said more than 1,400,000 CGI sheets had been delivered in the affected areas free of charge and over 180,000 would be provided soon.
He said there would be a need for plastic sheets in the monsoon season to cover tents, adding that an order for 300,000 sheets had been placed of which 100,000 had been received and delivered.
Replying to a question, he said that 93 per cent of the work on providing artificial limbs to amputees had been completed.
He said that only 50 volunteers of the National Volunteer Movement were currently taking part in the relief operation. The number of the NVM volunteers had once gone up to 2,700 but slashed with the change in weather conditions, he added.
About the crash of the ICRC helicopter, he said the pilot was forced for hard landing for technical reason. It would be for the ICRC to decide to make public the report of the probe into the incident, he added.
Mr Khan said some selected parts of the report of seismic survey conducted by foreign experts would be made public.
