HARIPUR, March 23: Tehsil Nazim Haripur Iftikhar Ahmed Khan has rejected the compensation package announced by the former government for those affected by the Tarbela Dam project, and demanded that compensation should be paid as per the World Bank’s recommendations.

Talking to newsmen at his office here on Saturday, the Nazim termed the compensation package a joke with the people affected by the project which had resulted in displacement of over 100,000 inhabitants of some 200 villages and other localities of Tarbela.

He said local people were promised alternative agriculture lands and residential plots, but 8,000 claimants, who spent their hard-earned money to get their genuine claims approved by the patwaris and other officials concerned, were deprived of their rights.

According to Mr Khan, majority of those who were allotted land in Sindh and Punjab also failed to get its possession because of lack of official support to them.

Disapproving the new compensation formula, he said when the government asked the affected people to contact the authorities concerned under the World Bank pressure, there were 4,500 claimants for agriculture land and 3,500 for residential plots.

But the commission, headed by A.R. Siddiqui in 1998, declared only 1,700 claims for agriculture land and just 44 for alternative residential plots as genuine and the findings of the report were declared as classified which were never shown to the representatives of affected people.

The Tehsil Nazim demanded of the government to compensate the remaining 4,000 affected people at the rate of Rs744,000 per kanal as recommended by the World Bank.

It is worth mentioning that the previous government had announced a compensation package for the Tarbela dam victims who could not receive either alternative agriculture land or residential plots against the loss they suffered at the time of construction of Tarbela Dam three decades back.