Govt to pay Rs 1 lakh for damaged houses

The government Friday decided to pay Rs 1 lakh to all those people whose houses had been damaged completely or partially in the weekend killer quake in Jammu and Kashmir.

This was decided at a meeting attended by Union Urban Development Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, State Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, Deputy Chief Minister Mangat Ram Sharma, Union Urban Development Secretary Anil Baijal and senior officials of Central Public Works Department, National Buildings Construction Corporation and Housing and Urban Development Corporation, official sources said.

• Tremors across borders

It was decided that Rs 40,000 would be given as first instalment towards construction of houses in quake-ravaged Tanghdar, Uri and Poonch and Rs 10,000 would be paid to those whose houses have suffered minor damages.

The Union Urban Development minister, who has been camping in the Valley since last weekend's tremors, asked his ministry officials to adopt a three-track strategy with an urgent need to build 20 community shelters in Uri, Tangdhar and Poonch.

The community centres will be built by officials of NBCC and HUDCO.

A team of NBCC and HUDCO officials will also be camping in Tangdhar and Uri to give demonstrations on the construction of houses in the earthquake-prone areas.

Azad also asked CPWD and other wings of his ministry to extend all possible help in designing houses, which can sustain earthquakes in the future.

Jammu and Kashmir falls under a highly seismic zone. The Urban Development minister also spoke to chief ministers of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi and asked them to despatch as many tents as possible to the quake-hit state.

The minister also took teams of his ministry to Uri and Tangdhar Thursday so that they could assess the situation before coming up with their suggestions in Friday's meeting.