‘Militancy-affected homeowners in FATA to be compensated’

Shaukat Ullah told the Senate that compensation payments of Rs400,000 and Rs160,000 respectively are being made.

ISLAMABAD:

Minister for State and Frontier Regions, Engineer Shaukat Ullah told the Senate on Tuesday that compensation payments of Rs400,000 and Rs160,000 respectively are being made to the owners of over 10,000 fully and partially damaged houses in Mohmand and Bajaur agencies.

Replying to a question during Question Hour, he informed that an amount of Rs400,000 each is being given to the owners of 5,821 fully damaged houses and Rs160,000 will be paid to the owners of 4,458 partially damaged houses in the two agencies.

The houses were damaged during the operations against militants in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and payments are being disbursed under the “Housing Uniform Assistance Subsidy Project” approved by the federal government he said, while adding that the process will be completed by December 2011.

He said the survey had been re-launched a week ago to cover any remaining houses that had not been registered for compensation payments earlier. About transparency in disbursement of payments, the minister said the money will be transferred to the owners through bank accounts.

Similarly, compensation will also be anticipated for other agencies and a survey will be initiated to account for the number of fully or partially damaged houses and workshops.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2011.