KARACHI: The Sindh PPP has urged the Election Commission to extend the date for verification of draft electoral rolls by one or two months to enable the rain-affected people to get their names enlisted after returning to their homes.
A meeting of the party’s Sindh council presided over by Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah also recommended to the government on Sunday to remove all encroachments on natural water courses of the Indus to clear the flow of rain and floodwater into the sea without any obstruction.
Talking to reporters after the meeting, the chief minister said besides occupation of areas of water courses by landlords the revenue authorities had illegally allotted some areas.
He said army’s help would be sought for removal of the encroachments.
He said some illegal buildings had been demolished and the provincial assembly would pass a law to get unlawful allotments made by the revenue department cancelled.
He said water courses passing through eight districts from Nawabshah to the sea had been blocked at many places. He said a plan was being prepared to clear the hurdles.
The chief minister said the council had recommended that a task force comprising representatives of the army, Wapda and the irrigation department should be set up to oversee the draining out of standing water and dredging work.
The council recommended that the capacity of the Left Bank Outfall Drain should be increased from the current 4,000 cusecs to 20,000 cusecs.
The chief minister said the LBOD was overflowing with the current flow at 15,000 cusecs.
The council said work to increase LBOD’s capacity and the dredging of natural drains should be completed before the next monsoon season.
The chief minister said abnormal rains had affected over 8.1 million people and 2.164 million acres of crops, including over 80 per cent of cotton, 60 per cent of rice and 45 per cent of sugarcane, in 13 districts. The total damage to agriculture has been assessed by a third party at Rs217.944 billion.
The chief minister said the government had held meetings to make arrangements after August 10 Met Office forecast about heavy rainfall for three to four days. But the downpour continued for over two weeks. Large areas in the province were already waterlogged and could not absorb the rain which inundated many areas.
Mr Shah said the government was looking after about 70 per cent of the affected people.
He said 382 deaths had been recorded because of diseases and in rain-related accident. No death had been reported because of hunger, he said. The province had 100,000 tents that had been provided to displaced people and help had been sought from the federal government.
He said Mirpurkhas, Jhaddo, Digri, Nawan Kot, Kot Ghulam Mohammad and Tando Jan Mohammad were the worst-affected towns and people from there had been shifted to elevated places in Tharparker and Umerkot.
He said people were waiting for the draining out of water to return to their homes and cultivate Rabi crops.
The chief minister said the Sindh government would pay half of the Rs21 billion allocated for relief through Pakistan Cards. He said the government was also providing bags of ration. President Asif Zardari has directed distribution of flour should continue till the next crop.
Mr Shah said Sindh had earlier planned to export over 400,000 tons of wheat which would now be used to provide flour to people in the affected areas.
He said the president had ordered supply of Rs4.3 billion worth of seeds and fertiliser to farmers owning less than 25 acres of land.
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