PESHAWAR, Dec 12: Quake survivors in Balakot and its adjoining areas need motivation so that instead of increasingly depending on aid, they should earn their livelihood and turn a new leaf, officials and aid workers said.

They said despite ever growing demand for labourers, survivors keep themselves confined to tents, waiting for more relief goods.

In background interviews, officials and aid workers in Balakot observed that unnecessary distribution of relief goods, particularly food items, was doing harm to the survivors who should start their own income generating activities. An official of an international relief organisation said that a large quantity of food had already been distributed among the affected people and what they needed at the moment was shelters and healthcare facilities, he said.

“Sufficient food has already been distributed among them. Side-effects of unnecessary distribution of food items are making people lethargic”, he observed.

Sources said due to lack of proper monitoring and check and balance system a large number of outsiders had also encamped in the tent villages to receive compensation and assistance.

“Charlatans have infiltrated tent villages and are depriving genuine people of relief and assistance”, an official said.

The October 8 earthquake had turned picturesque Balakot town into a scrap market, where hundreds of labourers are collecting steal bars from the debris of collapsed buildings. About one hundred scrap dealers and contractors from Peshawar and the Punjab have brought labourers from lower parts of the country to retrieve steal bars and other recyclable material from rubble.

Due to shortage of labour and growing demand, workers had enhanced daily wage rate from Rs150 to Rs320 while at present a labourer in Karachi or other parts of the country was paid Rs160 per day, contractors said.

Mohammad Khan, a scrape dealer in Balakot, said that despite offering high wages, local people did not avail opportunity and they had to bring labour force from Peshawar.

He said that dealers purchased scrap at Rs15 per kilogramme. They said hundreds of thousands of kilogramme of scrap was retrieved from debris every day.

“Despite opportunity of receiving handsome money, local people are reluctant to work on daily wages”, Mohammad Khan said. The town located along the banks of River Kunhar is still littered with thousands of tons of debris.

An army officer said that owners did not allow the engineering corps to dispose of debris, because they wanted to retrieve scrap and other material from it.

He said that the engineering corps was offering free transportation and loading facilities, but owners of the collapsed buildings do not accept the offer. He said debris of government buildings had already been removed.