MUZAFFARABAD, July 12: Nearly two dozen elderly and middle- aged women, representing the most vulnerable families of earthquake survivors, staged a peaceful demonstration here on Saturday, calling upon the authorities concerned not to evict them from a makeshift camp for they had no alternative place to move to.

Demonstrators told journalists on press club premises that the Camps Management Organisation (CMO) had strictly asked them to vacate their Dhairyan camp by July 15, “notwithstanding the fact that none of them owned any piece of land to erect even a temporary shelter thereon after eviction”.

They alleged that the CMO had also warned them against suspending power and water supply to the camp after July 15 because it was winding up all such encampments under an official policy.

“There is no place where I can shift my family after eviction from the camp. Tell us where we should go,” questioned Bakhti Begum, who told she was living in a rented house flattened by the quake.

She said her weak husband could not undertake any labour and it was difficult for them to rent a house.

Like Bakhti Begum, majority of other protesters were living as tenants before the earthquake and pointed out that renting an accommodation in the prevailing circumstances verged on the impossible due to skyrocketing rents.

Khudeja Bibi, a widow with two children, said she eked out a living by doing housework at different places and could not afford to rent any accommodation.

“After a month long toil I hardly earn enough money to bear minimum needs,” she told Dawn, wiping tears from her murky face.

Khurshid Begum, also doing household work to earn livelihood, was worried where she could take her five young daughters - one of them physically disabled - after eviction from the camp.

“Before (the earthquake) we paid Rs500 per month for a single room accommodation, but now the landlords demand at least Rs3,000 for the same size rooms. This is beyond our (paying) capacity,” she said, underlining a general problem in this town.

Another widow Phullan Begum said though they lived in their own house it was firstly struck by the quake and then by the eroding mountainside.

“We fall in the category of landless survivors but we are yet to receive money to buy alternative piece of land,” she complained.

Shamim Akhtar, a vendor’s wife, voiced almost similar problem, saying landslide had rendered their house unlivable as well.

“Over the past three years we have lived in worst conditions in one or the other camp. Nobody comes up with an answer that where people like us should move to,” said the veiled woman.

When contacted, CMO commissioner Shahid Malik told Dawn that the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (Erra) had devised a policy to compensate the families rendered landless by the earthquake by providing them Rs75,000 for purchase of five-marla land in their native areas.

However, as far as the affected tenants were concerned, a policy to address their problem was yet to be worked out, he said.

“We have taken up their case with Erra which has assured us of doing something for them,” he claimed.

The CMO, he said, had decided after Saturday’s demonstration to allow the 76 extremely vulnerable families, including the 19 families of tenants, to stay in the camps till July 31 but the remaining 240 families would be repatriated within a week.

“We are taking care of survivors for nearly three years now although nowhere in the world such camps are maintained beyond six months. Whether survivors admit it or not we are their biggest sympathisers,” Mr Malik said.