Compensation amount for Ataabad lake affectees will be released within a week, said Gilgit-Baltistan Finance Minister Muhammad Ali Akhtar on Wednesday. In a telephonic conversation with APP he said the amount had been received from the federal government.
About 150 families lost their houses, cattle, cultivable land and standing crops when a landslide in early January this year, created a lake by blocking the Hunza River. At least 20 persons were killed and many others injured in the incident.
It was pertinent to mention that the lake, stretching over 23 kilometers, had already submerged five villages upstream and the government had to shift nearly 2,000 people from the area. Despite carving out a drainage spillway in June, the lake was threatening to submerge 36 more villages downstream.
"The government have planned to increase the depth of the spillway by 30 meters sometime in the next month," Akhtar said. Frustrated by uncomfortable life in camps, the displaced people have time and again taken to the streets calling for compensation and have even clashed with the police. "I must also insist that people must not protest against things like the withdrawal of free boat service," he said. When asked if the government would pay the outstanding amount to Karakoram International University as it had waived the tuition of students belonging to Ataabad, he said, the university would be paid the due amount.
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