July 23, 2003	Wednesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 22, 1424

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RAWALPINDI, July 22: Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) MNA from Rawalpindi Mohammad Hanif Abbassi on Monday warned that traders and people would gherao (surround) the offices of the district and Tehsil Nazims if the district administration failed to provide them protection from possible flood in Nullah Leh.

Talking to reporters at his public secretariat here, he said his prediction came true and the traders of Bohr, Moti and Mochi bazaars had suffered huge losses due to the rain that lashed the city on Sunday evening.

Besides these areas, the residents of Gawalmandi, Mohanpura, Sadiqabad and Nadeem Colony also spent a fearful night when water entered their houses.

Mr Abbasi said only 50mm rain exposed the tall claims of the district government that adequate arrangements had been made to cope with possible flood in Nullah Leh. He said the traders had suffered a loss of over Rs230 million due to flood in Leh in 2001. At that time, the government had announced that it would provide relief to the traders in filing income tax returns, but no such relief was provided to them.

He said, this time, the traders and people would not be able to bear such a loss and the responsibility of all damages, if occurred, would lie on District Nazim Raja Tariq Kiani.

In the past, he said, drains were cleaned before the start of monsoon, but for the past two years, it had not been done. He said the traders, through correspondence and media, had been drawing the attention of the district and Tehsil Nazims towards this negligence and possible danger, but to no avail. He said all drains were lying choked and the traders had not seen any district government official in the locality for the past about two years.