Rs five billion allocated for relief, rescue: Sharjeel

Recounting relief measures taken in the wake of devastating rains, Sindh Minister for Information Sharjeel Inam Memon Saturday said the provincial government had allocated a sum of Rs 5 billion for relief and rescue operations besides setting up 878 relief camps to assist rain-hit people in rural parts of the province.
Briefing the media at the Chief Minister House Karachi, Minister informed that a total of 85 people have died in the unprecedented torrential rains in Sindh that had also caused considerable damage to infrastructure and land in different districts with most destruction in Tharparkar followed by Badin and Benazirabad (Nawabshah).
In the wake of devastating rains after August 10, he said, 2,24,000 people were displaced, 6,27,000 acres crops were damaged while damaging nearly 5,73,000 houses. He added that 27 Talukas were affected, along with 107 union councils, 9367 villages, 2.4 million acres of land was damaged. He told that no breaches had been occurred in any of the main canals, adding there were four minor breaches that had been repaired now.
"Government has also decided to give Watan Cards to all rain-affected people by giving Rs 20,000 to each family head, with Rs 10,000 of them to be provided by the Federal Government," Minister told adding the efforts were afoot to make card issuance process transparent.
He informed that the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) had also set up control rooms in all rain-hit districts to discharge its duties effectively. He hailed the role of media with regard to reporting of floods in 2010 in the country and urged them to play constructive role in the critical time facing the government.
Memon said Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali had formed committees of all districts with respective provincial ministers as it heads to look after relief operations. He said those districts having no minister, as its representative will be headed by the MPA. He said CM had issued special directives for setting up camps in all districts in order to provide speedy relief to all affected people. He said it was unfortunate that nobody praises the government for good steps taken by it.