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| April 1, 2006 | Saturday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 2, 1427 |
Major relief work completed: Farooq
ISLAMABAD, March 31: The Federal Relief Commission will merge into the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (Erra) on Saturday. “A nucleus of the 1FRC will merge into Erra to serve the reduced needs of relief in the quake-hit areas,” Chief Relief Commissioner Maj-Gen Farooq Ahmed Khan said at a press conference on Friday.
He said the major relief operation launched in the aftermath of the October 8 earthquake had been completed and the reconstruction phase would be started soon.
The remaining relief work would be carried out by a relief cell as an organ of Erra, he said.
Maj-Gen Khan will assume his previous assignment as chairman of the Prime Minister’s Inspection Commission.
Answering a question, he said He said thousands of affected people had left tent villages and thousands more were ready to leave but no deadline had been given for their evacuation. He said there was no forced repatriation.
He said the survivors’ presence in their areas was necessary to receive the second instalment of Rs75,000 for the reconstruction of their houses.
He said 294,000 people were living in tent villages.
He said Rs20 billion had been distributed among the affected people as compensation. He said over 950,000 tents and quilts, over 6.2 million blankets, 264,000 tons of ration, over 300,000 tons of medicines and 130,000 tons of miscellaneous items had been distributed among the affected people. He said about 374,000 shelters had been completed while over 39,000 were under construction. Over 1.5 million CGI sheets had been delivered to the affected areas free of cost, he said.
He said all major roads were open and all telephone lines and exchanges in the NWFP and AJK had been restored.
The relief commissioner praised the role played by international and local agencies in helping the affected people.
He said US relief teams had almost completed their job, Cuba was handing over its hospitals and gradually repatriating and Jordanian teams in Bagh would close their facilities soon.
Responding to a question, he said some non-government organizations would assist the government in the reconstruction phase.
Answering a question, he said 50,000 troops had been moved to the affected areas in addition to those already based their.
He said withdrawal of troops not required in the affected areas had been started and army units would be sent to take part in the reconstruction process in accordance with the need.
Asked if places other than Balakot needed to be relocated in the light of seismic surveys of foreign experts, he said places on or close to fault lines had been named in the reports.
He said he was satisfied with his performance as no second or third wave of deaths had occurred as feared.
He said work on legal aspects of the Disaster Management Agency was under way.
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