Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP)’s Special Assistant Mushtaq Ghani admitted on Tuesday that 10 to 15 per cent areas in the earthquake affected districts had not been reached yet.
Answering a question during a press conference at Peshawar’s civil secretariat, CM’s special assistant for information and higher education said that he had no idea how many people or houses had been affected in those areas.
“We have not yet reached 10 to 15 per cent areas,” Ghani said briefing the media on the progress of relief and rehabilitation activities in the earthquake hit KP.
He explained that the areas are mostly narrow passes with few houses but that they were trying to reach out to each and every area and person while the people themselves were also reaching the district governments for getting their relief goods.
Regarding the damages to public buildings he said 495 schools had been heavily damaged and that the government was providing them large-size tents so that the students are not affected by the cold weather. Ghani said that Swat University building was affected in the earthquake and that classes were not being held in the building.
Ghani said that out of the 226 people who died, 193 families had been compensated while of the 1,635 people who were injured in the earthquake, 115 had been compensated. He said that 42,722 houses were damaged, for which 398 families had been compensated under the compensation package announced by the federal and KP governments after mutual consultation.
Ghani said that Rs 3 billion had been released for the district administrations for the compensation while every district had been given Rs 10 million for running relief and rescue operations in case of emergencies. He said that the districts still have Rs 508.40 million in funds. Ghani said that an MI-17 helicopter is still being used in relief operations while the Pakistan Army, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) Kashmir teams are also busy in relief activities. Ghani said that foreign NGOs are working in areas of Chitral, Shangla, Dir and Torghar while three medical teams from Punjab are operating in Malakand division.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT:
Responding to another question Ghani said the local government system was new and the local government representatives’ capacity building was still underway while the commissioners system was already established.
He said that the local government representatives were performing their duties and assisting the people in their areas. Ghani said that the KP’s treacherous and mountainous terrain had made relief operations difficult but that the government‘s capacity had increased.
Ghani said that a total 19,192 tents, 27,667 blankets, 1,750 floor-mats, 8,700 food packets, 1,000 flour bags, 11,000 tarpaulins and 11 power generators had been distributed among the people while, the districts had 4,526 tents and 907 blankets still in their stocks.