MUZAFFARABAD, April 27: The International Committee of the Red Cross will set up a ‘physical rehabilitation centre’ in the capital of Azad Jammu and Kashmir for amputees and disabled people.

“The (AJK) government has given its consent for the establishment of the centre and has also identified the space for it,” ICRC spokesperson Rashad Akhundov told reporters on Thursday.

The centre, considered to be first of its kind in AJK, would be established on the site of flattened Combined Military Hospital, he said.

The CMH, once the biggest hospital of the state, currently offers insignificant healthcare facilities to people. After the Oct 8 earthquake, the AJK government shifted all civilian staff to the Abbas Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) to meet the healthcare needs of the survivors. The centre would produce artificial limbs, provide those to amputees and train them in their use, Mr Akhundov said. “A dormitory with 50 to 100 beds will be part of the centre,” he said.

He said work on the project would begin by the end of June and finish within six months.

“The centre will start offering services by January 2007,” he said, adding that the ICRC would remain involved in the project for five to seven years.

When asked if people were still in need of artificial limbs almost seven months after the earthquake, the ICRC spokesperson said: “It’s our own assessment coupled with the feedback from the government that they are.” He said several non-governmental organisations were registering the amputees and disabled people.

He said the centre would be run by “a couple of foreigners, local employees and volunteers of the Pakistan Red Crescent Society”.

Mr Akhundov said the ICRC was bout to finish a project aimed at restarting farm production in the quake-hit zone.

“In order to help the local economy recover, we are distributing seeds and tools by helicopter and by road to 30,000 households in 266 villages in Muzaffarabad district,” he said.

The items being distributed included 750,000kg of maize seed, 600kg each of onion, turnip, tomato, carrot, chilli and spinach seed, 3,000kg of ladyfinger seed and 450,000kg of fertilizer and 120,000 pieces of tools, he said.

He said the ICRC would construct 20 water supply schemes each in Neelum and Jhelum valleys with the help of local water committees.