14 February 2005	Monday	04 Muharram 1426

QUETTA, Feb 13: Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Yousuf has said that flash floods caused by heavy rain have devastated vast areas in Pasni, Turbat, Bela and other regions of Balochistan.

Speaking at a press conference, along with Deputy Speaker Aslam Bhootani and Finance Minister Syed Ehsan Shah, he said that a final figure about the loss of lives would be released after collecting information from all flood-affected areas.

He said: "The government is gathering information about the loss of human lives and other damage in the history's worst floods in Makran and other areas." He said that the death figure being given out by the print and electronic media were not correct.

However, he said the damage to agriculture land, huts, tube-wells and crops was tremendous and the government was collecting data from different districts. The affected people, he added, would be helped and properly compensated and helped under the directives of the president and the prime minister.

He said: "We will form a committee for scrutinizing the claims of losses as directed by the president." About relief work, the chief minister said that the personnel of army, navy, Frontier Corps and Coast Guards were providing relief to the affected people, moving the stranded people to safe places and also dropping food and water from helicopters.

He said two C-130 aircraft had brought relief goods from Karachi to Gwadar and Pasni, while another had taken relief goods from Quetta to the coast. The Pakistan Red Crescent Society has also sent relief goods.

Replying to a question, the chief minister said that relief assistance would be provided by the federal government after an assessment of the losses had been made.

He said that besides the coastal areas, which were the worst affected, other parts, including Bela, Awaran, Panjgur, Pishin, Kohlu and Bolan, had also been hit hard by the un precedentedly heavy rain, and added that seven people - three women and four children - had died due to severe cold in Kohlu. Some houses had been damaged due to heavy snowfall in the Barshor area of Pishin district.

Reports reaching from Kalat said that huts had been damaged due to incessant rains over the last three days. The chief minister said that he himself had visited the flood-affected areas along with President Pervez Musharraf last Saturday and on Sunday he went to Bela to assess the losses.

Answering a question, the chief minister said that figures showing a large number of deaths were the result of poor information sent from different quarters to the Crisis Management Cell as the communication system and road network had broken down.

He particularly mentioned a TV channel and said it was putting incorrect casualty figures. He said that 31 bodies had been recovered in Kech district which were of passengers of a bus swept away by flood waters at Shadi Kor.

Jam Yousuf said the Hingol river was in a state of high flood as 0.1 million cusec of water was passing through it to the sea. He said the flood had damaged the coastal highway between Ormara and Pasni while its Pasni-Gwadar section was safe.

He said that difficulties were being experienced in carrying out relief work as roads and communication systems had been badly damaged. He said that some 30 to 40 villages had been affected in Gwadar district up to the Iranian border but the loss of life was small.

Replying to a question, he said that an inquiry would be conducted into reports about sub-standard construction of the Shadi Kor dam and anybody found responsible would be punished. However, he said that the flood was unprecedented in the history of the area and caused huge losses in Makran and "no one could be blamed for it."