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| August 11, 2007 | Saturday | Rajab 26, 1428 |
KARACHI: Slow relief fund disbursement irks flood victims
KARACHI, Aug 10: The process of disbursement of relief fund among flood-affected families in Sindh has so slow that the provincial government has managed to disburse a little over half the Rs150 million fund, it emerged on Friday.
Sindh Relief Commissioner Syed Anwar Haider told Dawn that Rs74 million had so far been disbursed at the rate of Rs15,000 per household.
In reply to a question, he told Dawn that the delay in disbursement was due to standing water in flood-affected areas, which was creating a hurdle in carrying out a survey. He said even now there were many areas where a survey was not conducted because of inundation.
The relief commissioner’s attention was also drawn to a reported press conference addressed by Lt-Gen (retd) Farooq Khan, Chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority, in which he claimed that the Sindh government had so far disbursed less than 16 per cent (Rs23.73m) of the Rs150m provided to it.Gen Farooq had also pointed out that out of the Rs100m given to the Shahdadkot district government for 24,164 households, only Rs1.43m had been disbursed among 95 households.
The relief commissioner said that the figures were due to an error of communication.
He said that to date in Dadu district alone Rs59m was disbursed among 4,500 households while in Qambar district Rs15m was disbursed among 1,000 households.
In reply to another question, he said that the amount was given for disbursement among the affected families of Dadu and Qambar districts only and not for any other districts.
According to an official report, in Sindh the losses to the cash crops of cotton and rice were estimated at Rs231m and Rs384m respectively, while the losses due to washed away livestock were estimated to be Rs563m in Dadu, Qambar, Shahdadkot Badin and Thatta.
As per the rules laid down for carrying out the survey and disbursement of money, a team comprising an army official, the nazim of the union council and a revenue employee visits the affected areas and prepares a list. The UC nazim identifies the members of the household. After preparation of the list, it is sent to the GOC for approval.
After approval of the list, the money is distributed in the presence of an army officer, an official of the civil administration, the UC nazim and police personnel.
Meanwhile, the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture and Sindh Abadgar Board chairmen Syed Qamar-uz-Zaman Shah and Abdul Majid Nizamani said 500,000 people in Sindh had been affected by the floods and torrential rains mostly in Dadu, Qambar, Shahdadkot, Thatta and Badin districts.
They termed the amount of Rs15,000 per household as insufficient and called for paying Rs50,000 as relief to the affected families as not only their cultivated crops but also stocks of grain, cattle heads and other articles were destroyed by the floods.
Commenting on the relief measures taken by the government, a PPP-MPA from Qambar, Ghulam Mujaddid Asran, contested the government’s claims.
He said that the flood-affected people were disgusted as so far most of them were not provided any relief. He said that in Wara Tehsil, where the chief minister had visited and distributed some water coolers among the affected persons, people had thrown these away due to the scarcity of drinking water.
Leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly, Nisar Khuhro, who had visited Shahdadkot many times, accused the authorities of having photo sessions with the chief minister, prime minister and others while failing to provide relief to the people.
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