GILGIT: A controversy is brewing up over maintenance of funds to be distributed as compensation among those affected by the construction of the Diamer-Bhasha dam, it emerged on Saturday.

With over Rs50 billion disbursed so far, the district administration is being accused of depositing the funds in private banks, instead of the official National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), with the intention of maximising interest. The allegation has been rejected by the officials concerned.

Sources claimed that despite directives issued by the ministry of water and power against the practice, the district administration has deposited the compensation funds in private banks, delaying its disbursement in order to pocket interest on billions of rupees.

According to the ministry, the compensation is being paid to the affectees from a loan and it must be kept in a profitable account at the NBP to facilitate the government to pay the mark-up to the institutions it has borrowed money from.

The administration has been keeping the funds in private banks despite the fact that people frequently hold demonstrations in Diamer in protest against non-payment of compensation for their land being affected by the project.

Sarzameen Khan, a member of the National Assembly from Kohistan, described it as “fraudulent and unlawful tactics” of the Diamer administration and said the matter would be taken up in the next session of the assembly.

On the one hand, he said, different tribes in Diamer were fighting each other because of the issues related to the land being affected and, on the other, they were being deprived of their rights by the administration. “There are reports that the office of the deputy commissioner always remains crowded by the employees of private banks,” he said.

He called for the formation of a parliamentary committee to investigate the matter besides auditing the compensation and other accounts of the project. “It’s unfortunate that vested interests are playing with the $14bn project.”

When contacted, a spokesman for the Gilgit-Baltistan government said that the compensation amount, running into billions, had been shifted to private banks on public demand. He said private banks had provided jobs to over 200 local youths, adding that the district administration had utilised the interest amount on development projects.

The spokesman said that over Rs50bn had been paid to the affected people. Still Rs7-8bn existed in private banks which would be used to pay compensation after land disputes among tribes were settled.

He said keeping a huge amount in the NBP was not as profitable as in private banks and added that the interest on the amount was solely used for activities of public interest.

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2017