Urges stakeholders to cooperate with ERRA
Islamabad
Chairman National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Lieutenant General Akhtar Nawaz Satti has said that the ‘New Balakot City’ dispute will be resolved on priority basis and it is responsibility of the provincial government to vacate the land from the occupants.
He urged the stakeholders to cooperate with the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) and said that a meeting with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, about the Bakrial City will be next by Monday next.
The Chairman NDAM was speaking during a meeting of affectees of Balakot’s ‘Red Zone’ called by Senator and Lieutenant General (Retd) Abdul Qayyum Awan, at PM House the other day. Chairman ERRA Brig Asim, Brig Ahsan Mumtaz, renowned religious scholar Qazi Khalil Ahmed, Special Assistant to CM Syed Ahmed Hussain Shah, Haji Muhammad Maroof Awan, Tauheed Ahmed Khan Bangash, Rajab Ali Azad, Khurshid Zaman and Senate Consultant for Defence Production Jawad Ahmad Khan also attended the meeting.
Addressing the meeting, Qazi Khalil Ahmed said that people of Balakot, were spending miserable life due to lack of basic life amenities including health, education and other facilities.
He said that since the devastating quake of Oct 08, 2005, the affectees of ‘Red Zone’ were being deceived and their genuine issues have not been resolve despite passage of 15 years.
The former ‘district khateeb’ especially thanked Gen. (Retd) Abdul Qayyum for providing an opportunity to the affectees to convey their distresses to the authorities concerned for their resolution. Addressing the meeting, SACM Syed Ahmed Hussain Shah demanded for issuing allotment letters of plots in New Balakot City besides increasing the number of plots.
He also expressed serious concerns over poor condition of road, educational institutions and hospitals in tehsil Balakot.
Advocate Tauheed Ahmed Bangash was of the opinion that due to delay in ‘New Balakot City’ projects, land grabbers have started illegally occupying the land endowed for the project. Gen. (Rtd) Abdul Qayyum suggested that instead of started a project on a disputed land, the project should be launched somewhere else.
Muhammad Maroof Awan was of the view that instead of ‘Lolly Pops’ and suggestion to pay to affectees against the plots, they should be allotted plots as pledged. Rajab Ali lamented the hollow claims and lip services to satisfy the affectees.—INP
