LANDI KOTAL: The Khyber Agency political administration has completed a survey on the damage caused to houses in Jamrud and Landi Kotal tehsils by the Oct 26 earthquake.

Officials said that a total of 185 houses in both the tehsils were affected by the quake.

The administration had constituted two committees comprising representatives of local communities and journalists, to assess the damage.

The officials said out of total 104 houses reported affected in Landi Kotal, 32 were totally damaged while the rest were partially damaged.

In Jamrud, the committee reported 20 houses completely damaged and 61 partially damaged.

Assistant Political Agent, Jamrud, Saiful Islam told Dawn the findings of the committees had been submitted to the political agent who will send the report to the Fata Disaster Management Authority for approval of compensation.

He said the government had pledged Rs300,000 for the owners of completely damaged houses and Rs100,000 for partially damaged.

Meanwhile, some affected people in Landi Kotal expressed dissatisfaction over the authenticity of the survey and alleged that damaged houses were not listed during the survey.

Zulqarnain Shinwari said the boundary wall of his house had collapsed in the earthquake but his complaint was not entertained by the committee members despite submitting photographs of the affected portion of his house to them.

Alamgir Afridi, another resident, alleged that relatives of influential people and supporters of local MNA were included in the list of affected people, while the deserving people were ignored.

The officials, however, insisted that the survey was conducted in a transparent manner and would be verified by a team of FDMA officials. They said the FDMA team would pay visits to the earthquake affected localities both in Landi Kotal and Jamrud and would randomly verify the findings of the survey.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2015