Seven years on, half hearted reconstruction haunts earthquake survivors in AJK

By Tariq Naqash MUZAFFARABAD, Oct 7: As the entire Kashmiri nation and their Pakistani partisans celebrate 7th anniversary of October 2005 earthquake on Monday, concerns about accomplishment of the pledged reconstruction programme, particularly in the urban areas of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, still lay heavy on the survivors, it has been observed. Like an annual ritual, government functionaries had started bragging about their achievements and future plans regarding the reconstruction programme, soon after the onset of October, notwithstanding a widely known bitter reality – acute scarcity of cash flow. According to the figures obtained from the State Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency (Serra), out of 7984 projects/facilities, 4693 had so far been completed while work was “in progress” on another 2068. Around 1223 projects were yet to be started. The education sector was still the worst hit, as out of the 2792 projects, 1714 were either “in progress” or yet to be started. Of these 1714, major chunk, i.e., 1610, was to be built under the Government of Pakistan (GoP) funding. According to Sardar Rahim Khan, who was recently posted as secretary Serra, the reconstruction related bodies - Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (Erra) and Serra – were unable to complete projects according to their Annual Work Plan (AWP) due to acute financial crisis faced by the country. However, nevertheless, 350 projects had been completed in AJK over the last one year and of them 135 were in education sector, he said. A brief prepared by Serra revealed that severe financial crunch had virtually paralysed the reconstruction programme since April 2010. During fiscal year 2010-11, Rs 8.509 billion were released against a demand of Rs 27 billion. In fiscal year 2011-12, Rs 6.867 billion (GoP 2.593 billion and the rest foreign aid) were released against the demand of Rs 32.328 billion. Requirements for current fiscal year for ongoing projects in AJK were worked out at Rs 16.02 billion whereas the central government had allocated a paltry Rs 10 billion to Erra for the entire reconstruction programme in AJK and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Of this, the amount released to AJK until September 30 was just Rs 314 million whereas total volume of Serra’s matured liabilities by that time was Rs 1.47 billion. “The central government should allocate more funds for reconstruction programme to help us clear pending liabilities which have already caused a considerable demobilisation of contractors,” said the sources in Serra. Sources told that during their last meeting with the Chairman and Deputy Chairman Erra on September 16 both the AJK president and prime minister had called for immediate release of funds and enhancement of budgetary allocations for AJK. “But it had cut no ice with the Erra bosses.” In the backdrop of this situation, AJK’s civil society and many political parties allege that reconstruction programme had badly suffered due to diversion of reconstruction related funds to some other heads by the PPP-led central government. “It’s very unfortunate that the central government has brazenly diverted reconstruction related funds and is paying mere lip service to quake survivors,” said Zahid Amin, a prominent civil society activist. Mr Amin, who as chairman Development Authority Muzaffarabad (DAM) was privy to most of the developments, regretted that a number of important projects earlier pledged to the ravaged AJK capital had been shelved by the governments in Islamabad and Muzaffarabad. It may be mentioned here that the Chinese government had pledged a soft loan of US $300 million for reconstruction programme to which US $53 million was added by the GoP as a counterpart funding. The amount was apportioned to three AJK cities – Muzaffarabad, Bagh and Rawalakot. Share for Muzaffarabad stands at US$ 190.62 million (54% of the total), but of the 104 projects worked out at the beginning, many have been shelved. According to Serra’s document, the federal government had pledged a total allocation of Rs 4.187 billion under “President of Pakistan’s Relief Fund” for land acquisition for city development projects. However, of it only Rs 2 billion had so far been released. In the ongoing fiscal year, Serra had demanded Rs 700 million from that allocation to “avert jeopardy faced by city development projects” but nothing had been provided. On Monday, residents of Muzaffarabad were all set o stage a sit-in against what Mr Amin said “perfidies” meted out to the earthquake survivors over the past seven years. Serra document also disclosed that of the total 234 projects for all three towns, only 5 had been completed and 42 were in progress whereas work on 187 was yet to see the light of the day. The earthquake survivors were also aghast at Erra which, they allege, had not only been overstepping its mandate but had been wasting “a hell lot of money on non-essentials.” “Erra was constituted for planning of reconstruction programme in the affected areas, but it has not only indulged in implementation, particularly in donor sponsored projects where the cash flow is not an issue, but has also got it converted into a permanent body at the cost of survivors,” lamented Mr Amin. According to documents obtained from Erra, there are around 400 employees in the authority, 82 of which are enjoying gazetted positions. Most of them have been regularised whereas many have gone to the courts for their regularisation, notwithstanding the fact that the purpose for which the body was raised was lagging far behind than the pledges and promises. Ends