Compensation to Tarbella Dam victims discussed

A meeting of the standing committee on irrigation and power department was held under the chairmanship of MPA Zar Gul Khan at the conference room of the NWFP Assembly Secretariat on Wednesday.
Members of the NWFP Assembly Engineer Muhammad Tariq Khattak, Mst Nighat Orakzai, Abdul Akbar Khan, Saeed Gul, Maulana Amanat Shah, Nadir Shah, Muhammad Shuja Khan and Sardar Ayub Khan, Secretary Irrigation and Power Syed Khalid Gilani, Additional Secretary Irrigation Rahmatullah Khan, DPO Mansehra Muhammad Yamin, DOR Mansehra Sadiq Jadoon, Administrator Kala Dhaka Latifur Rehman, Chief Engineer Tarbella Wapda Mahmood Hassan, Director Tarbela Fazli Mehboob, DG Small Dams Engineer Raqib Khan, Law Officer Sikandar Hayat, Deputy Secretary NWFP Assembly Javed Latif and officers of the irrigation, Wapda and revenue departments attended the meeting.
The meeting discussed at length the issue of compensation to the Tarbella Dam victims and expressed with concern that those people had not yet been compensated after the lapse of about 30 years. The meeting regretted that Wapda had paid compensation to the other victims except Darband Township people who were still waiting for their turn.
The committee recommended that a meeting should be convened at Mansehra in which the DCO, DOR, DPO, Wapda and the elected representatives from the area along with the other landlords should be invited and a viable strategy be adopted for onward recommendations to the provincial government so that the issue of compensating the affected people could be solved once and for all.
The meeting also discussed the Ghazi Barotha project and the members expressed their regret that the project's benefits were taken by the Punjab while the NWFP suffered as the project had been installed in this province.
They stated that no royalty was being given to the NWFP.
It was recommended that a sub committee, including officers of the finance and irrigation departments should prepare a draft summary regarding this issue so that the matter could be brought into the notice of the federal government.
The committee also discussed the question moved by MPA Nadir Shah regarding appointment in the irrigation division Mardan, Swabi and drafted recommendations.