PESHAWAR: Authorities in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas have estimated the number of completely and partially damaged houses at 80,000 in five of seven tribal agencies.

Additional chief secretary, Fata, Dr Fida Wazir told a group of journalists from tribal agencies here at his office on Saturday that the authorities concerned had conducted survey of 32,902 houses damaged during conflict. He said that survey teams had validated 22,471 houses for payment of compensation of which 15,139 owners had received compensation under the Citizens Losses Compensation Programme.

The survey and compensation process is going at a snail’s pace in the militancy-affected areas despite availability of funds and human resources. Survey of damaged houses is being conducted in Khyber, Kurram, Orakzai, North Waziristan and South Waziristan agencies. The government is paying Rs400,000 for an extensively damaged and Rs160,000 for partially damaged house.

The ACS said that compensation to affected families was in progress and the federal government had released Rs10.364 billion to the civil secretariat under this head so far. He said that Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Unit had disbursed Rs4.095 billion to the beneficiaries through the political administrations.

Dr Wazir says around 15,000 people have got compensation for damaged houses

Dr Wazir said that 302,032 displaced families had been repatriated to their homes in tribal agencies and return process would be completed soon. He said that only seven per cent of the internally displaced persons were now awaiting repatriation and they would return to their native areas during current year.

He said that the cost of immediate rehabilitation works in five tribal agencies was estimated at Rs26.381 billion. He said that Rs11.234 billion had been arranged of the total estimated budget. He added that estimated cost of permanent reconstruction work stood at Rs12.5 billion that included construction of roads, markets, etc.

Dr Wazir claimed marked improvement in law and order situation in the tribal region. He said that the law enforcement agencies now held 100 per cent of Fata. He said that there was no organised presence of militants in tribal areas and most of the militants organisations operated from Afghanistan.

Giving comparison, he said that a total of 982 terror incidents had occurred in 2015 which reduced to 478 in 2016. He said that a total of 48 such cases had been registered in the area from Jan to March 2017.

Answering a question, he said that efforts were underway to improve the condition of educational institutions, health facilities and other service delivery organisations in Fata. He also claimed that literacy rate had improved in the tribal areas.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2017