LONDON Nov 10: Britain will pledge funds for reconstruction of the quake-hit areas at the donors conference being held in Islamabad on Nov 19, said British Secretary of State for the Department of International Development (DFID) Hilary Benn.

“We will make a commitment to reconstruction effort,” Mr Benn told first session of the meeting convened by Justice Foundation Kashmir Centre on the subject of “Kashmir after the earthquake: rebuilding together” at the committee room of the House of Commons here on late Wednesday.

Britain will be represented at the conference by junior DFID Minister Gareth Thomas.

Mr Benn said his country was the second largest donor after the US as it pledged £33 million to help the quakevictims. He said the DFID had already paid £1.5 million to the UN for keeping its helicopter in the air to support the relief operation in Azad Kashmir and North-West Frontier Province.

He said it was a race against time to prevent second catastrophe and the people there needed shelter or they would freeze to death. Mr Benn said he planned to write again to the EU ministers “underlining the need for more funds to be made available for the earthquake response” and urge them to “look deep into their conscience” because if more people died all would bear a heavy burden.

The task now was “transferring money” into provision of tents, blankets and medicines, said Mr Benn. He said some of the countries had committed money for reconstruction but that would not be of help if the people were dying due to shortage of resources.

He said 350,000 tents had already been delivered and 35,000 would soon be delivered soon while 16 tent villages had been built in valleys. He said the three Chinook helicopters provided by the UK had lifted over 350 tons of supplies and had evacuated 150 injured people.

—APP