Rs 80 billion compensation to quake victims
By Zulfiqar Ahmad

ISLAMABAD—Federal Relief Commissioner, Major General Farooq Ahmed Friday said an amount of Rs. eight billion has been distributed among the earthquake victims so far with more in the pipelines ensuring that disbursement completes at the earliest possible. “Around Rs.10 to 11 billion were earlier provided to the respective governments of AJK and NWFP and Rs. 04 billion more have been released for payment of compensation,” he told a news conference. “The respective governments are distributing this money among survivors and as they do not have that much capacity, the disbursement process may complete by the end of this month or the start of December,” he said in response to a question. Giving break-up, Maj Gen Farooq said Rs. 3297.4 million were paid to heirs of dead as compensation, Rs 135.845 to injured and Rs 4363.025 have been paid in category of house destruction both in Azad Kashmir and NWFP. He however pointed out deficiency of winterized tents, medicines and equipments for treatment of the injured. “So far we have received 13,000 winterized tents from China and a US based organization has promised 6000 tents, but we need much more,” he stated.
“We are also trying to convert the ordinary tents into winterized tents and if this experiment is successful, then required material would be provided to people to make their tents winterized,” he added. He said the relief operators were lacking different medical equipments including thousands cortical, cancellous and lag screws, 100,000 Cephalosporin injections and 10,000 Pethidine injections. They are also in dire need of parapledgics, CT Scan, portable X-ray machines, MRI and other medical equipments, Farooq said. He said in no area the relief operation was wound up and the Army and civilians were preferably focussing on areas 5000 feet above the sea level. “We are trying to implement the idea of “one tent one family” and have distributed 0.5 million tents so far with dumping food in those areas to meet requirements if under any circumstances the supply line is affected,” he said. Dumping of ration in affected areas, re-erection of one room out of rubble above 5000 feet, increasing capacity to house additional refugees in AJK & NWFP if necessary, speed up compensation payment and keep the major roads open. Updating on relief and rehabilitation activities, Maj Gen Farooq said PAF and Aviation generated total 8643 sorties till November 24 with 224 sorties generated by the Aviation on November 24 alone. He said by November 24, as many as 488626 tents and quilts, 3900996 blankets, 65329.9 tone ration, 3229.65 tone medicines and 8138.936 tone of miscellaneous relief goods were provided to the survivors.
Maj Gen Farooq Ahmed, giving details of restoration efforts told mediamen that all the major and secondary roads have been cleared and all the fixed lines as well as digital exchanges in NWFP and AJK were restored. He said, in total 218759 persons were receiving medical attention, admissions stood at 86059, major surgeries were 19045, still admitted number stood at 4285, total 665 persons were amputated and the paraplegics number rested at 558 persons. Moreover, he said, in AJK 48 tent villages have been established accommodating 31,570 people and 20 tent schools have been established with 89 teachers imparting education to 1108 students while in NWFP, 18 tent villages have been established comprising 5712 tents accommodating 8243 families and 18 tent schools were functioning with 4269 students studying there under the supervision of 126 teachers. Maj Gen Farooq said in AJ&K, 2722 education institutions have been reopened with 184514 students and 11301 teachers engaged there, representing over half the enrollment prior to earthquake. In NWFP, 6518 institutions have been reopened.
He said more big tents were being ordered to open more schools and ensure that the students resume their studies. For providing shelters, he said, 10 Army Engineer Battalions are employed for the construction of shelters in quake-hit areas of NWFP & AJK and total 7665 shelters have been constructed above 5000 feet with 5232 in AJK and 2433 in NWFP and 2997 more shelters were under construction. He said thousands other shelters are being constructed on self help basis and by the NGOs. He said 49698 CGI sheets have been delivered to the affected areas with 19300 in AJK and 30398 in NWFP free of cost while 30908 more CGI sheets were on way. He said 856 volunteers are working along with Army Engineers for construction of shelters and the FRC has placed demand for additional 300 teams from National Volunteer Movement. The Federal Relief Commission, he said, was encouraging the governments of Azad Kashmir and NWFP to provide basic services to people in collaboration with the Army. Maj Gen Farooq said with increasing the capacity of tent villages the authorities are trying to fully take care of the hygiene and sanitation requirements of the residents. He said the relief operators were trying to construct more one room residences side by side one tent residences above 5000 feet.