Two decades on, quake's scars still unhealed

Promised plots remain under development despite top court orders

BALAKOT:

It's been 20 years since the horrific earthquake of October 8, 2005, which wiped out the city of Balakot. The people in the area remain deprived of infrastructure and basic facilities which were compromised in the earthquake to this day.

Four governments have changed in the past 20 years, but the conditions of the city have not changed. Even today, the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital is running in a rented building, while the construction of the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital, which was started at a cost of millions, has not been completed.

All government schools in Balakot city are running in shelters. Almost dozens of high, middle and primary schools have not been built to date. The promises of resettling the victims in the Red Zone area of Girlat and Balakot at the new city of Balakot Bakriyal also remain unfulfilled.

This project was under the management of the central government and the ERA until 2022. For the past three years, it was handed over to the provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but the provincial government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has not taken any significant steps. Despite clear orders from the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the work of preparing plots in New Balakot City has not started till date.

Even today, the people of Balakot do not have clean drinking water and basic health facilities.