August 15, 2007	Wednesday	Sha’aban 1, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Aug 14: The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has urged the Sindh government to speed up disbursement of compensation money to flood victims and release the federal government’s additional grant for Dadu district.The provincial government estimates that Rs498 million is to be paid to 33,000 victims in Qambar-Shahdadkot and Dadu, of which the federal government provided Rs300 million.

The pace of the Rs15,000 compensation money for each flood victim in Sindh has been immensely slow.

According to aid workers, so far only 10 per cent of the victims have been compensated. An NDMA report says that in Shahdad Kot only 1,467 victims out of over 24,000 affectees received compensation.

The NDMA has asked the provincial government to release the additional grant of Rs86.28 million to Dadu for distribution amongst 5,706 households.

Meanwhile, the Balochistan government has revised its compensation policy for flood victims and now Rs100,000 would be paid for each breadwinner of a family. The compensation for loss of life other than breadwinner was put at Rs50,000, while for disabled and injured it is Rs25000 per individual.

Compensation for other categories is as follows: Rs50,000 for a destroyed cemented house, Rs25000 for a partially damaged cemented house, Rs25,000 for a destroyed katcha house, Rs15,000 for a partially damaged katcha house, Rs20,000 for a destroyed cemented shop, Rs10,000 for a damaged katcha shop, Rs5, 000 for each cow, buffalo, horse and camel lost, Rs3,000 for each sheep, goat, donkey los) and Rs35 for every poultry bird loss.