2005 quake survivors to get allotment letters on April 3

MANSEHRA: The provincial assembly's standing committee on rehabilitation and settlement has decided to hand over allotment papers of New Balakot City on April 3 to survivor families of the Balakot red zone and asked the district administration to initiate action against occupants who, despite receiving money, are still occupying land meant for the housing project.

"The standing committee will hand over the allotment papers to residents of the Balakot red zone on April 3 and directed the district administration to retrieve land from illegal occupants by force," said Balakot Tehsil Nazim Rustam Khan while speaking to reporters on Friday.

He added that an important meeting of the standing committee, which he also attended, was held in Peshawar on Friday where important decisions were taken about the future of New Balakot City housing project being developed with an estimated cost of Rs13 billion for the settlement of survivors of the 2005 earthquake.

He said the committee also decided that occupants who voluntarily vacate respective lands would be compensated with all incentives and a plot at new Balakot city and those who would challenge the writ of government would be dealt through law-enforcement agencies and would be deprived of plots and other incentives.

The programme manager of the District Reconstruction Unit (DRU), Mohammad Jaffar, had issued notices to illegal occupants by the order of director general of Provincial Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority (Perra) last month, asking them to vacate land before February 28, otherwise law-enforcement agencies would take possession of the land through force and responsibility of any damages would lie on the occupants.