ABBOTTABAD, March 18: Quake-affected people have started leaving tent villages, set up in different parts of Hazara region, for their ancestral villages, where temporary shelters have been provided by the army and other relief organizations. Mansehra District Nazim Sardar Yousaf has urged the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (Erra) and other donor agencies to immediately provide galvanized iron sheets to the quake-hit people so that they could begin the construction of shelters.
He demanded that the provincial government should immediately fill all vacant posts of doctors in hospitals and basic health units in the quake-affected areas, because most of the foreign relief teams were packing and returning to their countries.
He also demanded that the government should launch short-term programmes for the provision of clean drinking water and sanitation and other facilities to attract more than 200,000 survivors who were living either in tents or had moved to other parts of country.
Earthquake survivors from Battagram, Alai, Balakot and other areas who had left the areas after the Oct 8 earthquake for other parts of country, especially Karachi, have also started returning as the government had announced to release the second instalment of compensation of Rs75,000 to survivors for construction of their houses.
The government has also announced to provide Rs3,000 as cash assistance to those leaving the tent villages, while those families who had lost their bread-earners and those who were rendered disabled would be given Rs3,000 for six months.
Data is being collected for another scheme announced by the Punjab government and some NGOs from April to take care of one family with the financial assistance of Rs6,000 per month.
Presently, out of more than 600 tent villages established by the army, national and international NGOs and the NWFP government, 54 were supervised by the army and the provincial government, while rest were managed by different organizations.
The district coordinator of NGOs in Mansehra, Gulfam Jehangiri, while talking to Dawn, said that tent villages would be closed in three phases from by March 31.
All tent villages having the capacity of 50 members were closed down in Mansehra district and in the second phase, people from big camps would be sent to their areas.
In Abbottabad district, out of at least 10,000 survivors living in tent villages at Havelian, more than 2,000 people have left for their homes, while others were packing.
It had been decided that all those who would be leaving tent villages would be provide tents, GI sheets, food and cash assistance.
Two NGOs had also established skill development centres with the help of the NWFP government in Mansehra and Balakot, where women and disabled persons would get training.
The Mansehra district government had also started a survey of tent villages with the help of an NGO to gather details of those who could not return to their areas owing to the closure of roads or due to lack of facilities in their areas.
Mr Yousaf clarified that no one would be sent back forcibly. However, he was of the view that at least 60 per cent people would leave tent villages by March 31.