President Asif Ali Zardari has asked the federal government to take necessary steps on priority for completion of ongoing projeccts in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. This he directed during his meeting with the delegation from AJK comprising President AJK Raja Zulqarnain Khan, Prime Minister Raja Muhammad Farooq Khan at Aiwan-e-Sadr on Tuesday.
Ms Naheed Tariq, Minister for Population Welfare AJK, President PPP AJK Abdul Majeed Chaudhary, former Prime Minister Sardar Muhammad Yaqoob Khan, Chief Secretary M. Arbab Shehzad, Secretary SERRA Abid Shah and Commissioner Mangla Raising Project Chaudhry Munir were also accompanying the President and PM AJK.
Water & Power Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Secretary General M. Salman Faruqui, Chairman ERRA Altaf M. Saleem and Chairman WAPDA Shakil Durrani were also present during the meeting besides Federal Secretary Water & Power Shahid Rafi. Matters related to progress on various development projects with particular emphasis on issues relating to the Mangla Dam raising project and reconstruction program in AJK were discussed during the meeting.
Prime Minister AJK Raja Muhammad Farooq Khan briefed the President about the reconstruction program in AJK and the four other new towns exclusively meant for the affectees of the ongoing Mangla dam raising project. While briefing the President he said that the raising work of the main dam and spillway have been completed in December 2009 and the main raising work is ready to accommodate additional storage during the flood season.
The raised Mangla Dam will be able to store additional 2.88 MAF of water over and above its original capacity of 4.54 MAF. He said that over 40 billion rupees had been paid as compensation for land and trees however an amount of nearly 5 billion rupees is yet to be provided to the government of AJK for disbursement to affectees for building up property.
Payment of the amount is very crucial to enable the affectees to construct their new settlements and evacuate their present living abodes, he said. The President assured the AJK leaders that he would ask the federal government to urgently address the issues relating to rehabilitation and payment of compensation to the affectees who were displaced due to the raising of Mangla dam.