April 19, 2006	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 20, 1427

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MUZAFFARABAD, April 18: The Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority (Erra) would keep public representatives in Azad Jammu and Kashmir involved in its operations through their representation in political steering and reconstruction advisory committees, the authority’s deputy chairman Lt-Gen Nadeem Ahmed said here on Tuesday.

At a special briefing organised for public representatives from the affected areas with a view to removing alleged misgivings about the federal authority, Gen Ahmed emphatically said that the whole system had been decentralised and the relevant assistant commissioners had been empowered to make immediate decisions on appeals/complaints by the survivors.

The (AJK) chief secretary would also visit the headquarters of affected districts within 15 days to personally examine the complaints, he told participants, according to an official handout.

Gen Ahmed said Erra teams would inspect and advise owners of unliveable houses to demolish and reconstruct them in accordance with the officially-provided design.

Allaying the apprehensions about the registration process, he said earlier 70 per cent people had been listed as eligible for the compensation but the new process had increased that percentage, putting an additional financial burden of Rs9 billion on the government.

Gen Ahmed said that eleven seismic centres would be set up in the affected areas where experts would provide all kinds of technical assistance to the survivors.

The reconstruction period, Gen Ahmed said, would span over three years during which NGOs would focus on education and health sectors whereas official buildings would be constructed from the normal budget.

Small health units, he said, would be merged into a big health centre where all facilities would be made available to the people.

AJK Prime Minister Sardar Sikandar Hayat said Erra should bind the NGOs not to initiate any activity without consulting the government.

He criticised the MQM saying it wanted to gain political mileage under cover of carrying out relief activities.

“This is a sensitive region and if any wrong message goes across (the LoC) from here, it would not leave any good impression,” he said, according to the handout.

The briefing was also attended by ruling Muslim Conference president Sardar Attique Ahmed. Four lawmakers from the opposition’s People’s Party, including its president Sahibzada Mohammad Ishaq Zaffar, were also invited but only one of them — Sardar Ghulam Sadiq — showed up.