MANSEHRA: The PML-N district government in Mansehra has finalised a plan to seek funds from the prime minister for the reconstruction of its 300 schools destroyed in the 2005earthquake.

The plan will be submitted to the Provincial Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority for formally putting it up with the premier for approval.

The decision to seek these funds was made during a meeting attended by the representatives of Erra, Perra and district nazim here on Friday.

The meeting was held in light of a recent meeting held between religious affairs minister Sardar Mohammad Yousuf with the Erra chairman in Islamabad.

`Boys and girls of over 300 schools have been getting education either in tents or in open places as the Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority didn`tinclude these schools in its reconstruction strategy,` nazim Sardar Said Ghulam told reporters.

The nazim said the participants also agreed on the speeding up of the work on reconstruction schemes, especially removal of hurdles to them, in light of the release of Rs686 million by the government in the current fiscal.

He said the Perra had canceled the Rs292 million contracts to carpet seven major roads in the district over slow pace of work and recommended three more valuing Rs127 million for cancelation to the Erra.

`These 10 road carpeting projects of Rs419 million will boost reconstruction activities in the district to the relief of the common man,` he said.

The nazim said currently, the carpeting of different roads projects in NA-21 constituency was underway at the initial cost of Rs230 million and in NA-20 at the cost of Rs256 million.

He said the Perra in collaboration with the district government had also evolved a strategy for the timely completion of the Erra-funded projects.

`We have also finalised a strategy that the reconstruction projects falling in the areas most affected by the calamity will be executed on priority basis. Funds will be diverted for thepurpose,` he said.

The nazim said minister Sardar Yousuf had finalised a plan to call a conference of international nongovernmental organisations, which had rushed to Mansehra after the 2005 earthquake and left after the completion of relief operations.

`These international NGO will be sensitised to the reconstruction of schools and other buildings,` he said.

GOVT WARNED: The Jamaat-iIslami tehsil government in Oghi has warned the provincial government to either restore the tax it has imposed on transportation of minerals or give it the due share in royalty earned through the mining industry in its jurisdiction.

`We condemn the abolition of tax, which we imposed on the transportation of minerals but abolished by the provincial government. If the government doesn`t restore that tax or ensure our share in the revenue earned from the mining industry, we will come onto the streets to claim that right,` Oghi tehsil nazim Raja Mohammad Bashir told reporters on Friday.

The nazim said the water level had dropped drastically and road infrastructure was destroyed completely due to the excavation and transportation of minerals from Oghi tehsil to other parts ofcountry.