The Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (Erra) has paid housing grants to almost 99 percent of the earthquake-affected people, Erra Chairman, Altaf Saleem said on Friday.
"The Erra has paid housing grant to approximately 600,000 quake-affected people and now only 3,700 remain and they will be paid soon after the completion of necessary procedure," he told reporters. The Erra Chairman said all out efforts were being made to ensure payment to the remaining by resolving technical difficulties very soon.
Altaf Saleem said the Erra had provided funds to the National Highway Authority to construct 7,000 km of roads in every nook and corner in the quake-affected region. "Over Rs 5 billion have been spent on providing monthly stipends, each of Rs 3,000, to severely affected families that had lost their land due to land-sliding," he said.
He said the international community and donors had pledged funds worth $6.3 billion out of which $2 billion had been used for relief efforts while 45 percent of remaining $4.3 billion was being paid as housing grant to the affected people.
Altaf Saleem said the Erra was making every effort to provide full relief to the quake-hit people to ensure a better life for them after such a devastating tragedy in October 2005.
Responding to a question, he said only few thousand people were now in the tent villages and they would be shifted to their houses after completion of the construction work.
Dismissing the impression of any lack of coordination among the Erra, PErra and SErra, he said all the authorities were working in a co-ordinated manner and achieving their targets. Erra Deputy Chairman, Lieutenant General Nadeem Ahmad said there were some problems in restoring educational infrastructure because a very large number of educational institutions had been damaged in the disaster.
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