MUZAFFARABAD, May 26: A project aimed at providing money to the rural landless survivors of October 2005 earthquake so that they could buy a piece of land for construction of their houses was formally closed after, what the executors claimed, its successful completion.
The closing ceremony of the project, funded by Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (Erra) and implemented by UN-Habitat, was held at a local hotel here on Monday with AJK Prime Minister Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan as the chief guest.
Certificates and appreciation plaques were distributed among UN-Habitat staff, government officials and all partners involved in the implementation of the project.
The function was earlier told that the project was initiated in June 2007 to support families in the earthquake-affected areas who had lost their land due to earthquake or landslides and rockfalls caused by it.
These families were provided Rs75,000 each to purchase safe land and eventually build a safe earthquake resistant home.
Over 1,700 representing 8,000 people had benefited from this programme by purchasing safe land and construction work on their homes was underway. In all, over 26,000 people were facilitated through this programme.
The closing ceremony was also attended by representative of donor agencies — Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
In his remarks on the occasion, UN-Habitat Pakistan chief technical adviser Jean Christophe Adrian said: “We are very glad that our support to the (AJK) revenue department helped make this programme a huge success and get it acknowledged internationally as a best practice.”
Sardar Attique also appreciated the work of the UN-Habitat and his revenue department, saying the programme had helped thousands of people purchase safe land and rebuilt what they once thought would be gone forever.
“We look forward to providing more families with safe land in future through the second phase of this project,” he said.
The ceremony was told that the second phase aimed at rehabilitating virtually landless people, living in high hazardous rural areas in quake affected district.
This hazardous land policy was scheduled to be implemented in July 2008.