KHAR: Victims of the Oct 26 earthquake in Bajaur Agency have expressed dissatisfaction with the ongoing assessment of damages declaring it very slow.

A week ago, the local administration had doubled the number of survey teams to accelerate the registration of local houses damaged by the disaster.

The people from different earthquake-hit areas in the agency told Dawn on Tuesday that the survey of damaged houses in their areas was going on very slowly as around half of the houses had yet to be examined and listed.

Mohammad Saleem, of Baichina town in Khar tehsil, said his house had completely been damaged in the earthquake but any survey team had yet to visit his house to know about damage.

“I’ve been waiting for the survey team since the house was destroyed by the earthquake. No official has contacted me yet,” he said.

Insist survey teams yet to examine half of damaged houses in Khar

The man said he wanted to rebuild his house but had delayed it because no survey team had visited him.

“We are already been suffering from the quake owing damaged of house while delay in house assessment has further increased our troubles,” he added.

Irkam Khan, a resident of Ali Jan area, said his village was situated opposite the political compound in Khar and that scores of houses were damaged there in the calamity, but no survey team had visited the area to record damages.

He said the delay in the damage assessment had increased the misery of the people most of them lived in tents.

Ayaz Khan, of Mandal area, said no survey team had visited the area where dozens of houses had been damaged.

He said the unnecessary delay in damage assessment not only disappointed disaster victims but also eroded the people’s trust in survey teams.

Haji Abdul Qahir Khan, of Sadiqabad area, said the survey team on Tuesday listed scores of houses close to his house but refused to list his one though it was destroyed in the disaster.

Habib Khan, of Haji Lawang area, said one room of his house was damaged but the survey team didn’t list it as the room was used by the cattle and not people.

Abdul Haq, of Khar town, said several rooms of his house were damaged in the earthquake but the survey team refused to consider them for payment of compensation saying there’s no rubble.

“I told survey team on oath that the rooms of my house were damaged in the earthquake but it didn’t believe me and said in plain words that it won’t list the damaged rooms without rubble,” he said.

The disaster victims also expressed concerns about survey teams ignoring damaged boundary walls and porch.

They also said if the damage assessment continued at a snail’s pace, the exercise would take long to complete.

They demanded that the government accelerate the damage assessment process by increasing the number of survey teams and ensure early payment of money before the start of snowfall to those whose houses were damages or destroyed in the calamity.

However, a senior administration official supervising survey teams insisted the assessment of damaged houses was progressing across the agency very well and that almost all houses had been listed.

He claimed the survey was likely to complete next week.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2015