Rs12.1bn Released for flood affectees, says Sharmila

KARACHI: Advisor to Sindh Chief Minister for Media Sharmila Farooqui has said that the Sindh and federal governments had so far released Rs.12.1 billion funds for rehabilitation of 2011 flood affected people of the province.

“The Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) government is taking hectic efforts to provide relief to the flood affectees on priority basis, besides taking precautionary measures in view of expected rains in July and August 2012,” she said while talking to a PPP workers delegation here on Saturday.

Elaborating status of Pakistan Cards so far, the media adviser said, “The Sindh government had released Rs.10.6 billion funds while Rs.1.5 billion funds had been released by the federal regime. The total cash disbursed through HBL and UBL so far is Rs.11,406,922,449.” She said that while the government always led the relief and recovery activities in flood-affected areas, the humanitarian community supported the response by covering gaps where the needs exceed the government’s response capacity.

She said: “In response to the government’s request for assistance on 6 September 2011, the Humanitarian Country Team developed the Rapid Response Plan as a strategic one to address the needs of the population in support to the government’s relief interventions."

Sharmila said that the government had provided almost all items of daily use to the affectees that include 304,311 government tents and 19,310 others, while 508,633 blankets were also provided to them.

She said despite multifarious conspiracies and different tactics used by anti-democracy forces, the government was continuing relief process smoothly. "The PPP is a recognized federal party of the country and deeply rooted in masses. It is the only party that could save the nation and the country in real manner," she said.

The media advisor said that last year’s floods were devastating one that killed 497 people and damaged 1,596,807 houses. She hailed the role of Rehabilitation Department and Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Sindh for ensuring smooth relief to flood affectees.

She asked PDMA and the Rehabilitation Department, Sindh to start taking precautionary measures in view of expected rains in July-August 2012.