MANSEHRA, Feb 7: The local bodies’ representatives of Balakot Tehsil have given call for protest and blockade of the main roads for February 18 against the delay in provision of basic amenities to the October 8, 2005, earthquake survivors, it was learnt.

A meeting of the nazim and naib nazims was held in a hotel here the other day under the auspicious of Movement of Rehabilitation for Survivors (MRS) in Balakot.

The meeting was attended among others by president MRS Mohammad Sadiq and local bodies’ representatives; Sardar Abdul Ghani, Mohammad Jamil, Raja Mohammad Younas, Qari Mohammad Munir, Mian Munzoor Ahmad, Farooq Mughal, Sardar Mohammad Rafique, Sardar Mohammad Basheer, Haji Barkat, Sardar Shahjahain and Mohammad Shaukat.

They said that they had earlier set the deadline of February 5 for the government and Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (Erra) to contact them to discuss the modalities to address the issues, but none of the officials of the government or Erra contacted them, resultantly they were left with no option but to stage demonstrations and block important roads on February 18.

They said that about 18,000 people from all the twelve union councils of the tehsil would take part in the demonstrations and stage sit-in.

They alleged that a big chunk of the relief and rehabilitation funds were embezzled by the corrupt mafia in government departments, adding, “We would bring those involved in looting of the relief and rehabilitation funds to justice, as because of huge scale embezzlement, thousands of families are still living under miserable conditions.”

They said that the government and Erra did not even bother to listen to their problems. They said, “We would fight for our rights at every cost and stress them to pay heed to the problems of the survivors, who are still without basic amenities.”

They said that the former federal minister Amir Muqam got Shangla included among the list of quake-affected districts and a major chunk of funds were shifted to Shangla, leaving little for the worst-affected districts like Balakot.

They lamented that even today thousands of survivor families were deprived of their third and fourth installment of housing compensation.

“If Erra did not pay the survivors their housing compensation, how they would reconstruct their damaged houses,” they said.