
The Daily Telegraph said more than 300 million pounds of aid for the 2005 earthquake, which killed more than 73,000 people, has yet to be handed over to Pakistan’s Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (Erra). It cited one senior Erra official as saying that they were told in March 2009 that 12 billion Pakistan rupees were being diverted from their budget to other government projects.
“When we have the money, we will pay you,” the unnamed official said that Erra directors had been told. “All the money was given by the western governments, but they said ‘we have so many other problems’.”
In June this year, the Erra staff was again told their budget was being cut from 43 billion rupees for 2010-2011, to just 10 billion, the newspaper said. The paper also said it had visited the town of Balakot where 5,000 people were killed in the earthquake. Despite a promise to rebuild it on a new site, no new roads had been completed nor had the construction of buildings begun.
Pakistan’s finance secretary, Salman Siddiq, denied that any foreign aid funds had been diverted, stating that cuts had not been imposed last year.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 15th, 2010.
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