ERRA in trouble in Azad Kashmir

The trouble related to payment of compensation was in the offing for some time and has finally hit Azad Jammu and Kashmir, with police firing warning shots to disperse protesting citizens. The government had decided to pay cash compensation of Rs 175,000 for every house destroyed in the calamity. Protest meetings and processions were staged last month against the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) asking it not to start another house-checking drive and pay the outstanding amounts. Admittedly the protest was also politicised as rival parties tried to use the issue to attract public support.

The trouble is that a first tranche of Rs 25,000 was paid quickly. Then, before the rest could be paid, ERRA thought of suspending the payment and starting a re-survey to make sure that the money went to the right people. After six months, the money for the houses destroyed has still not been paid. Those affected say if the survey starts now, the payment will not be made this year and they will face another winter without shelter. Since the compensation has been delayed and the matter politicised, the homeless want the compensation doubled — in the NWFP the rate is higher — and they want it paid to every affected family rather than for every house destroyed. The only way ERRA can avoid getting into bigger trouble is to expedite the payment by curtailing the time spent on the house-survey. The sooner this is done the better. The political blowback of not doing so could nullify the good impression created by the Musharraf regime in its rescue and relief work and put a dampener on rehabilitation and reconstruction. *
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default...4-4-2006_pg3_1
General sahebs, where is the money?

How much feathering Generals' nests?

And as per Asim, Paksitanis care for Kashmiris!

The caring of Pakistanis for Kashmiris is so magnanimous that NWFP takes the lion's share!

Asim's pithy and undeliberated bravado is repeatedly demolished by the Pakistani media almost immediately as this case!

And he claims he is a journalist!

How gross!