PESHAWAR: The Fata Disaster Management Authority (FDMA) has said that approximately 80,000 houses are either fully or partially damaged due to militancy in five agencies of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

In a statement issued here on Tuesday, the authority said that 96 per cent of the total temporarily dislocated persons (TDPs) had returned to their native areas in Fata and repatriation of the remaining four per cent displaced people was in progress. It said that majority of the remaining TDPs belonged to the North Waziristan Agency and their return process was in the final stage.

FDMA said that 49,303 houses had been surveyed by the survey teams in Khyber, Orakzai, Kurram, North Waziristan and South Waziristan agencies, of which 37,592 houses were validated by the respective Agency Steering Committee, and 28,730 beneficiaries had been compensated.

Under the package, Rs400,000 cash compensation was being paid for fully damaged house and Rs160,000 for partially damaged house. In addition, all the returned families had been provided with the transport grant of Rs10,000 and return cash grant of Rs25,000 per family.

In this connection, over Rs8 billion had been disbursed, said that statement. It said that return food ration for six months was also provided to the returnees in their area of origin and immediately upon return survey of their damaged houses was conducted.

The authority said that Rs5.35 billion was earmarked for immediate rehabilitation, including the rehabilitation of school, health facilities and water supply schemes, and the work on these schemes was underway.

It said that a total of 737 schemes had been identified in North Waziristan Agency of which funds were released for 498 schemes mainly in the health, education, public health, road and rural development sectors.

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2017