MANSEHRA: The district administration and a committee formed by the provincial government to remove hurdles to the New Balakot City housing project have agreed on the allotment of plots to 3,600 families from the Balakot red zone, who had survived the 2005 earthquake, in two months.

`We have asked the committee set up by the government to maintain liaison between district administration and the earthquake survivors to ensure the completion of the plots allotment in two months,` Mazhar Ali Q asim, the focal person for the New Balakot City project, told reporters here af ter a meeting on Monday.

The first meeting of the 12-memebr committee was held with Mansehra deputy commissioner Shahrukh Ali, who ordered the speedy allotment of plots to the earthquake surviving families, who are living in makeshift houses in Balakot red zone.

The DC said 400 plots were allotted to residents and landowners of Bakrial site, where the New Balakot City was being developed to settle the calamity survivors, who had voluntarily vacated their lands and houses.

`We`ll allot plots to 3,600 families from the Balakot red zone in two months. This committee should help us do so smoothly,` he said.

The focal person asked the committee to inform the district administration about the issues of earthquake survivors for necessary action.

In 2007, then president Pervez Musharraf had laid the foundation of New Balakot City project at the cost of Rs13 billion to settle the 2005 calamity surviving families.

However, the project has been in doldrums since.

TIMBER SEIZED: The forest department on Monday confiscated a huge cache of illegal timber and seized 10 saw machines used for the purpose in remote areas of the district.

`We have seized pine, biar, diar and walnut wood measuring thousands of feet both in raw and finished form and booked five timber smugglers illegally operating saw machinesinforestsof SirenandKonshvalleysof Mansehra, divisional forest of ficer Riaz Khan told reporters here.

He said 10 illegal saw machines were also sealed, while the department had asked the police to register FIRs againsttheiroperators.