GILGIT, April 20: More than 400 villagers affected by the Naltar hydel power project have demanded compensation and said that without government’s support they and their children would be forced to live like refugees.

Work on the project, being executed with the help of Chinese engineers at a cost of $190 million, is in full swing. Some 40 families were asked in December last year to move out of Naltar Pain, 35km north of Gilgit.

They said the power department

had assured them that they would get compensation and a monthly dislocation allowance but now the payment had been stopped.

They said the Chinese engineers were working on a water channel for power house by blasting rocks above the village and they vacated their homes in view of the hazards posed by the work.

Zahid Hussain, a member of the Gilgit District Council from the affected constituency, said that schools were closed four months ago because no arrangement had been made before the dislocated families. He said that orchards and fields had dried up because the blasting of rocks had destroyed all irrigation channels.

When contacted, an official of Northern Areas Power and Water Development said that a compensation award scheme had been finalised and the deputy commissioner of Gilgit had been authorised to ensure payment to affected villagers.