MANSEHRA, Aug 2: The United Nations Rehabilitation Agency (UN-Habitat), with the financial support of the UK’s Department for International Development, here on Saturday launched ‘Virtually Landless Project’ for earthquake survivor families.

Under the project, Rs75,000 will be given to each family, living in hazardous areas, as compensation for purchasing a 5-marla piece of land in some safe area.

On launching of the project, the UN-Habitat organised a press briefing at a hotel here.

Speaking on the occasion, UN-Habitat’s programme manager Nilofer Qazi, landless project coordinator Zahid Khattak, assistant project manager Aziz Ahmad, District Nazim Sardar Mohammad Yousaf and District Coordination Officer Israr Khan said following completion of phase-I of the project in the NWFP and Azad Kashmir, the UN-Habitat with the financial support of the DFID launched the Virtually Landless Project or Rural Landless Project, phase-II, to compensate survivor families who did posses land but it was in dangerous area or there was a threat of land-sliding. They said only those would benefit from the project who had not been benefited from the previous programme.

They said the Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction had launched the Rural Landless Project in June 2007 to support families in earthquake-affected areas who had lost their land due to the earthquake or landslides, adding 1,730 families, comprising over 8,000 members, had been helped to buy an alternative land of 5 marlas.

They said that because of success of the project’s phase-I, the DFID had provided funds to implement its phase-II.

Mr Ahmad said that following completion of the identification process, a one-window operation would be launched to transfer the land in the name of survivor families.—Correspondent