MUZAFFARABAD, Oct 20: The AJK government’s official relief committee has decided to involve local people at union council level in the distribution of relief goods by the army, a state minister said here on Thursday.
“We have provided lists of such people to the in-charge of army’s relief cell for Muzaffarabad,” Minister for Rehabilitation, Relief and Evacuee Property Aamir Ghaffar Lone told Dawn after the committee held its meeting.
The AJK cabinet formed the ministerial committee two days ago with Revenue Minister Malick Mohammad Nawaz as its chairman. Communications and Works Minister Chaudhry Tariq Farooq, Religious Affairs Minister Hafiz Hamid Raza, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Raja Nisar Ahmed Khan, Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Aamir Ghaffar Lone, prime minister’s adviser Raja Farooq Haider and Deputy Speaker Sanaullah Qadri are its members.
“It has been observed that some unscrupulous people frequently collect relief goods from the army’s distribution points and this practice can be effectively arrested by involving the local notables in the process,” Mr Lone said.
Public representatives in the districts of Poonch and Bagh were also holding regular meetings with the army’s relevant officials in this regard, he added.
The committee, Mr Lone said, had decided to take stern action against those who had collected relief goods out of all proportion to their genuine requirement.
“Not only such goods would be recovered but also exemplary action would be taken against the hoarders,” he declared.
The minister said there were also complaints that some people were transporting the stockpiled relief goods to Pakistan and the district administration had imposed Section 144 on the advice of the committee to stop this unethical practice.
He said the committee also identified at least 13 places in and around the AJK metropolis where tent villages would be established.
These places included Narul, Pattika Nursery, Garhi Dopatta, Mera Tanolian Housing Scheme, Chattar Klass, Naluchi Middle School, Naluchi Grass Farm, Langarpura, Khun Bandi high school, Meradado, Kumi Kot Tilgran villages.
Answering a question, he said different organizations and governments had pledged to provide tents which had become the most required article in the quake-hit region.
It has also been decided to extend a request to the individuals and non governmental organizations willing to provide any kind of relief to contact the committee for guidelines and all possible facilitation, he said.
Mr Lone said the committee had also visited government offices and was satisfied with the ratio of attendance, although most of the government servant had suffered loss in the disaster.
Meanwhile, four committee members also visited the main relief camp established by Jamaat ud Dawa Pakistan in Chehla Bandi locality and were impressed by the relief measures taken by the organization in the wake of deadly earthquake.
At the camp, they also met a six-member team of Indonesian surgeons and physicians who had examined 120 patients and operated upon 90 of them since Saturday last.