April 20, 2007	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 02, 1428

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MANSEHRA, April 19: Displaced families living in the Jabba tent village have refused to vacate the village, Dawn has learnt.

The government has set April 30 as deadline to wind up all

tent villages in quake-affected areas of the NWFP and offered relief packages such as two months ration, transportation and 28 CGI sheets to each of 1,055 displaced families living in Siren, Kashtara and Jabba tent villages.

The government has started shifting of 572 displaced families from Jabba, 350 from Kashtara and 133 from Siren to their native lands.

But most of the people of Jabba tent village, which comprises about 570 families and is located some 15km from Mansehra, have refused to vacate the village. They went on a hunger strike in Balakot on Thursday.

Speaking on the occasion, Custodian Committee for the Rights of Jabba chairman Abdul Rehman criticised the Mansehra district coordinator officer for issuing notices to the DPs and said if the government tried to vacate the village the consequences would not be in favour of the government.

"We have lost everything in the earthquake and every government move to vacate the village would be resisted."

Mr Rehman said: “The government while showing our destruction to the world has received donations and grants worth $6 billion but we have been deprived of these donations.”

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