PESHAWAR/NOWSHERA: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has started compensating the families of the people killed in the mini-cyclone that struck three central districts of the province on Sunday, damaging 1,600 houses.

A statement issued from the Peshawar deputy commissioner’s office on Wednesday said that heirs of the each dead would get Rs300,000.

Nowshera and Charsadda district administrations also started paying compensation to the affected people.

The statement said the mini-cyclone with speeds of 110 kilometers per hour killed 49 people and injured over 267 others, besides playing havoc with the infrastructure. Electricity has yet to be restored to many localities in the affected areas, as the storm uprooted dozens of electric poles.

Officials said that decision about payment of compensation to the wounded persons would be taken later.

The statement issued from the Peshawar DC office said that revenue staff had completed survey of the affected areas and the report had been dispatched to the provincial government. Details about damaged crops were being collected, it added. The administration was also distributing cooked food among the affected people.

Meanwhile, the information department said the provincial government had released Rs25 million for relief activities in Peshawar, Rs6.4 million for Nowshera and Rs4.6 million for Charsadda.

In Nowshera, the local administration disbursed cheques worth Rs300,000 each to the families of seven people killed in the rainstorm.

Assistant commissioner, Nowshera, Abdul Hameed Khan, and additional assistant commissioner, Pabbi, Riaz Khan distributed the cheques to the families.

Hameed Khan said the local administration had provided tents, ghee, rice, milk, pulses, tea and drinking water to affected people. He said the administration was collecting data to assess the damages and compensate the people.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2015

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