Monday, October 17 2005 20:31 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: The European Commission today (Oct 17, 2005) decided to allocate another 10 million euros for the victims of the quake a week after the killer temblor devastated parts of India and Pakistan.

The 10 million euro in new funding would target such sectors as food, drinking water, shelters, and medical materials and medicines, European Commission spokesman for humanitarian aid Amadeu Altafaj said.

The aid would be distributed through ten NGOs in India and Pakistan, he said.

Altafaj told the India News in Europe Programme (INEP) in Brussels that the Commission still has to work out the amounts to be distributed for quake victims in Jammu and Kashmir and the Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.

The Commission had released emergency aid of 3.6 million euros a day after the killer quake struck parts of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan.

The spokesman said the NGO 'Action Aid' was allocated 5,36,000 euros from the 3.6 million euros for the quake victims in Jammu and Kashmir. The estimated number of beneficiaries is 3,000 families (21,000 people).

Further funding might be allocated in the future as details about the scale of the needs become clearer.

About 40,000 people died in the quake and its aftermath in PoK, while more than 1500 people are estimated to have died and 5000 injured in Jammu and Kashmir.

"I was so shocked by the scale of this latest natural disaster that I made sure that the European Commission could provide immediate assistance for the victims," said Louis Michel, the European Commissioner for development and humanitarian aid.