BALAKOT: People of Balakot observed a one-minute silence at 8:52 am on the 17th anniversary of the devastating earthquake of 2005 to pay homage to the 73,000 victims of a disaster that devastated much of Kashmir.
In a high school in Mansehra, floral wreaths were laid on the mass graves of 63 children killed during the earthquake in a ceremony attended by Bisharat Shah, assistant commissioner of Balakot, and a number of civil society members.
In Balakot tehsil of Mansehra, some 70 schools are yet to be reconstructed and the allotment of residential plots in New Balakot City could not be completed even after 17 years.
Later, the survivors of the earthquake, members of civil society, students and other organisations offered prayer at a graveyard for the people who lost their lives in the earthquake.
Like all previous years, the traders’ associations of Balakot also observed a complete shutdown in the city and staged a protest by blocking Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road and demanded for the reconstruction of infrastructure destroyed in the quake.
The earthquake prompted an update to Pakistan’s building code to make rebuilt houses safer.
But 17 years on, some say complacency has set in, in a country crossed by geological fault lines.
The earthquake brought a wave of destruction in the Hazara division particularly in Balakot and surrounding areas. According to the figures for Provincial Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (PERRA), 2,959 educational institutions were destroyed.
After the event, federal and provincial governments started rehabilitation and reconstruction of 7,053 projects worth Rs65 billion, but most of them remain uncompleted.
While talking to the media, Syed Yousuf Shah, chief engineer at PERRA, said that up to 77 percent of work has been completed and 5,406 schemes have been completed. “We have received up to 77 percent of the total expenditure,” he said.
He further said the remaining Rs15 billion have also been released which is being utilised for under-construction schemes that would be completed within due course of time.
