MANSEHRA, Oct 21: Amid protests by landowners and residents of Bakryal, a site proposed for the new Balakot city, the district revenue department on Sunday began land demarcation in the presence of heavy contingent of police and Frontier Constabulary, Dawn has learnt.

Officials of the Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority, Nespak and the revenue department earmarked 11,000 kanals of the private land for the establishment of new city where 50,000 quake-affected families of Balakot and Garlat would be settled. Nespak has been given the contract to establish the new city.

The residents and owners who possess over 6,000 kanals of land in Bakryal took to streets to denounce the government plan. They also announced that they would not withdraw form their ancestral land.

DSP Naqeebullah and other officials assured the protestors that the district revenue department was merely demarcating the land which it had allotted to the Provincial Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority through a notification and that it would not forcibly take possession of their land and houses.

Representatives of the residents and landowners, Mohammad Aslam and Munsif Khan, told the district administration that the settlement of quake-affected families of Balakot and Garlat to Bakryal was unjustified because it would displace 25,000 people and destroy 1,000 houses.

“Balakot was devastated by the earthquake, but the government wants to deprive us of our ancestral land. We will rather die than to vacate our houses and land. We will never give our land to Erra for the establishment of new city,” they added.

Nespak has started constructing the infrastructure at 4,000 kanals of forest land after President Pervez Musharraf had on May 20, 2007, laid the foundation stone of the new Balakot city with an estimated cost of Rs13. 5 billion. However, the people of Bakryal, who owned 6,000 of total 15,000 kanals, have refused to sell their land and opposed the government plan.

Nespak project in-charge Maj (retd) Ziaul Islam said the work on the project would be started soon after Erra and the district revenue department gave possession of the site to Nespak.