ISLAMABAD, Dec 13: The Devolution Trust for Community Empowerment (DTCE) is assisting local governments in enhancing post earthquake response capacity, National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) Chairman Daniyal Aziz told Dawn on Sunday.

The NRB chief said the DTCE initiated its programme of assisting the local governments through local citizen community boards (CCBs) in the quake-affected district of Mansehra, where the DTCE had been working for the past two years to assist CCBs so that they could become functional.

He said an agreement was signed between the provincial and district governments of the NWFP during a meeting in Mansehra last week to join hands for relief and rehabilitation of quake victims.

Mr Aziz said a meeting was attended by all local government councillors, nazims and naib nazims of union councils, MNAs, MPAs and senators of the district.

It was felt in the meeting that some niche segments of the earthquake-affected people required special care as they were facing anomalous situations, he added.

The NRB chairman said an action plan was finalized after discussing particular issues relating to post earthquake local government functionality through dialogue and consultation with the NWFP Chief Minister Mohammad Akram Khan Durrani, nazims and local government representatives.

The possible roles that the local governments could play in the post earthquake environment were also discussed especially community mobilization through the CCBs, he added.

Earthquake-affected tenants who are a fraction of the total number of 7,500 rent-paying households and 19,500 non-rent paying households in Mansehra district, according to the district census report 1998, are facing accommodation problems because they do not own any land and are salaried class, he said.

“Even if properties are reconstructed it is not certain that the same tenant will be allowed to occupy the rebuilt premises,” he added.

He said shelter for such households with the onset of winter and in addition injuries incapacitating such households had made them a priority for the local governments.

Most of the union council and tehsil-level offices in the hardest-hit areas have collapsed creating problems in finding records for compensation.

The NRB chairman said in a local meeting in Mansehra, the union councillors undertook the duty to identify and quantify such anomalous circumstances especially for women so that the DTCE could assist in communicating.

He said the DTCE was providing technical support for earthquake reinforced construction using local materials and indigenous technologies for dissemination by the CCBs.