Flood response, cash transfer to victims discussed: Dr Hafeez chairs meeting of all chief secretaries

Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh on Friday chaired a meeting of the Chief Secretaries of the four provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu & Kashmir on flood response and cash transfer to the flood affectees-2010.
The meeting deliberated on following agenda: a; amount of federal and provincial co-financing, b; benefit amount per family, c; amount per tranche, number of tranche, d; mechanism to deal with fresh applications and closing dates for ongoing and fresh registrations, e; outline for the operational manual that will guide the implementation.
The minister while addressing the meeting emphasised on the supply shift programme for flood affectees and urged the provinces to strengthen the system, as this is a model of collaboration of various national and international agencies.
On the above issues the Chief Secretaries gave detailed briefing of how far their respective sides have completed their first phase of payment of Rs 20,000 per family as cash compensation to the affected families. Payment of Rs 80,000 per family as per the government pledge was discussed in light of the finances available in this regard.
A workable and practical mechanism to deal with fresh applications for compensation, closing dates for ongoing and fresh registration and the criteria of complete damage, partial damage of houses in the affected areas and vulnerability was discussed at length.
The Punjab Chief Secretary informed the meeting that they have closed the rehabilitation centers after attaining the target of distributing the amount of Rs 20,000 per family of the affectees of the first phase, and in the light of the criteria settled hereafter, they will move ahead.
Sindh Chief Secretary said that they are focusing mainly on redressal mechanism for the selection of affectees for awarding the onward compensation to the affectees and hopefully they said this process shall be completed soon that too in co-ordination with Nadra and Provincial Natural Disaster Management Authority. The Chief Secretaries of KP, Balochistan, AJK and GB also highlighted their respective work done in this regard.-PR