LAHORE, March 29: Federal Relief Commissioner Maj-Gen Farooq Ahmed Khan has said that the government will provide Rs80 billion to earthquake victims for reconstruction of their houses.

Talking to newsmen after speaking at the concluding session of the international conference on safe and quality buildings at the Alhamra Art Centre here on Wednesday, he said every affected family would be paid Rs175,000 for rebuilding houses at different stages of construction. The reconstruction will begin from April but will take some years to be completed.

He said half a million houses had been affected during the earthquake in October last year. The government had already distributed Rs20 billion among the affected families out of Rs22 billion allocated for the purpose. Every family had been provided Rs25,000 as compensation. As many as 956,000 tents had also been distributed among quake victims.

He said designs of houses capable of withstanding earthquake shock had been prepared and would be provided to the people. Preparation of designs for safe houses had been necessitated because most of the structures collapsing during the earthquake were defective and did not conform to engineering standards.

He said the government also wanted revival of economic activities in the earthquake affected areas as soon as possible. A micro-finance scheme had already been announced for the purpose.

Welcoming the federal relief commissioner to the conference earlier, organising committee chairman Engineer Mian Fazal Ahmed said the collapse of large-scale structures in quake affected areas had highlighted the need for designing safe houses.

chicken market: Nazim Mian Amer Mahmood has ordered shifting of the chicken market from Sheranwala Gate.

The nazim issued the orders to this effect during a meeting with a delegation of the Sheranwala Gate Al-Khidmat Welfare Society here on Wednesday.

He said that encroachments in the chicken market should be removed to ensure smooth flow of traffic.

The delegation told the nazim that the market had become a nuisance for the residents of the area. The shopkeepers sold the chicken outside their shops and obstructed smooth flow of traffic by parking vehicles on the road. The sewers were often choked due to throwing of waste in the manholes.