BADIN, Oct 7: The district government has failed to drain out rainwater from a number of villages of the district despite passage of one month.

A number of union council nazims and councillors of different talukas lodged a complaint with provincial minister Syed Ali Bux Shah at an iftar party hosted at the Vani village and sought his intervention in this regard.

They alleged that due to lack of interest of the district government, funds were not being utilized properly to drain out stagnant water from villages.

They said that more than Rs2 million were released by the Relief Commissioner to provide relief to the people of Badin and Rs300,000 were also provided to the Deputy District Officers (Revenue) of each taluka but they did not take interest and failed to convene meeting with taluka nazims and left the amount unutilised.

They felt that the district administration probably was watching the situation with the aim to save the sanctioned amount and utilise the same for other purpose.

The people’s representatives said that if this amount was left unutilised, it would be misappropriated.

They urged the minister, who is also chairman of the district relief committee, to take immediate action and order an inquiry into the funds utilised for relief to rain victims.

The minister assured nazims and councillors that the matter would be reported to the chief minister and he would himself take action against officials.

He also assured them that rainwater would be drained out from villages on immediate basis.

Preliminary reports, it may be recalled, had revealed that over 90 villages of the district were under rainwater contrary to the district government’s assessment that only 45 villages had submerged.