PESHAWAR, Feb 16: The government on Wednesday declared five NWFP districts calamity-hit areas in the backdrop of torrential rains and snowfall that played havoc with standing crops , public and private properties and left some 320 people dead across the province, said official sources.

Through a notification issued by the NWFP Board of Revenue, Swat, Mansehra, Shangla, Battagram and Abbottabad districts have been declared calamity-hit districts under the Relief Act, 1958. However the decision has been described as of little benefit to the people as the declaration would only suspend recovery of abiana (water tax) for one year.

"It does not mean that farmers would be exempted from payment of abiana," said an official source. "It only entails that recovery of abiana would remain suspended for one year hence it would be of little significance for the farmers community", the source added.

The NWFP, official said, involved a large number of small land holdings and their owenrs pay negligible abiana. The devastations caused by recent rains and snowfall left 59 people dead in Swat, 31 in Mansehra, 15 in Abbottabad and seven each in Shangla and Battagram.

Out of total 2305 kacha (mud) houses that collapsed across the province because of rains, 51 have been reported from Abbottabad, 183 from Mansehra, 27 from Batagram and 86 from Swat.