Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The government has failed to materialise 2,724 projects in the education sector in Azad Kashmir despite a lapse of 11 years after the devastating earthquake on October 08, 2005 amid reports that a major chunk of the aid allocated for rehabilitation of quake affectees has been devoured by corrupt elements.

As many as 11 years have passed since the earthquake but the government has failed to rehabilitate those affected. As many as four districts of KPK and three districts of AJK were badly affected in the disastrous quake. Buildings of almost all the schools in Muzaffarabad, Neelum and Haveli districts were completely destroyed and thousands of children and teachers lost their lives. As many as 87,350 persons were killed, 138,000 were injured and 3.5 million people were rendered homeless.

The government evolved over 14,000 projects and an institution of ERRA was set up for reconstruction and rehabilitation of projects and earthquake affected areas. When contacted by Daily Times, an ERRA spokesman said that the government worked out 5,723 projects for the education sector in affected areas. As many as 2,999 projects among them have been accomplished and 2,724 are under construction. Work has not been started on some projects so far.

466 projects were planned for the environment sector while 240 among them have been completed and 226 are under construction. 725 projects were allocated for the governance sector. 532 among them were completed and 193 are under construction.

326 projects were earmarked for the health sector while 216 projects have been completed and no work has been started on 110 projects. 2352 projects were planned for the livelihood sector. 1,375 among them have been completed and 977 are still incomplete.

4,744 projects were allocated for water and sanitation project and no work has been started on 173 projects among them so far. 309 projects were allocated for the transport sector. 220 among them have been accomplished and no work has been begun on 82 projects. Some are under construction. As many as 19 projects were allocated for the power and telecom sector and 16 among them have been completed while three are under construction. 15 projects were allotted to the social protection sector, while four among them have been completed. 11 are under construction. As many as 34 projects were spelt out for the town planning sector, of which 31 have been completed and three are under construction.