PESHAWAR: Site selected for setting up relief camp for Swat DPs
Bureau Report
PESHAWAR, Nov 21: The NWFP government has selected a site for establishing a relief camp for the internally-displaced people of Swat district at Risalpur in Charsadda district and arrangements have been finalised in this regard.
The provincial home department on Wednesday selected the site known as the Benazir camp for this purpose where some 300 tents would be erected there for the people who became displaced due to the ongoing internal conflict in Swat district.
The meeting entrusted the task of provision of different utilities and facilities to respective government departments, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Pakistan Red Crescent Society, said a handout.
An official said that the refugee agency had yet to receive directives from the United Nations resident coordinator in Islamabad which oversees all activities in Pakistan to facilitate the provincial government in helping displaced people.
“The UNHCR being a partner of the UN in Pakistan stands ready to help the government to assist internally-displaced families if asked. But the decision of refugee involvement in relief work has to come from the UN resident coordinator in Islamabad,” Babar Baloch, a spokesman for the UNHCR, told Dawn by phone from Islamabad.
The NWFP government has also decided to engage the World Food Programme in the activities to ensure a smooth supply of food items to the displaced families in the camp.
A registration office will also be opened in Malakand where the displaced people will be initially registered before shifting them to the camp.
A meeting held at the provincial crises management centre in Peshawar on Wednesday was attended by senior officials and representatives of the PRCS which chalked out a plan for the establishment of the relief camp.
Sources said that only registered families would be entitled to get food assistance and other basic facilities inside the camp, about 50 km east of Peshawar.
An official said that not a single displaced family had registered itself with the authorities so far although a large number of people had fled the conflict zone.
