KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said the 2,120 two-room houses built in Thatta under the Turkish Housing Scheme will be allotted to the flood affected families of Thatta and Sujawal through balloting.

While presiding over a meeting on the housing scheme, which was completed with the support of Turkish government, the chief minister approved the criteria for allotment.

There are 2,120 housing units, each unit has two rooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, a courtyard and a veranda. The housing scheme also has two primary and secondary schools with 32 classrooms for boys and girls. Besides, it has a commercial centre with 12 shops, three mosques, two community centres, a health centre and a sports complex.

About the criteria, the chief minister said only the natives or residents of Thatta or Sujawal whose present or permanent address was registered with the National Database and Registration Authority and who had not been provided help for shelter by the government, non-governmental organizations or international organisations would be considered for the allotment. Such persons must also be a beneficiary of CDCP-II (Watan Card Phase-II), with household damaged category falling under the national poverty score card (below 16/17) of the Benazir Income Support Programme.

The chief minister directed Hyderabad Commissioner Qazi Shahid Parvez, Sindh Disaster Management Authority DG Salman Shah and others to hand over schools to some well-reputed organisation through education foundations.

He also directed the commissioner to hand over the health centre to the People’s Primary Health Initiative (PPHI) to ensure provision of quality health services.

It was decided at the meeting that shops would be auctioned to ensure better upkeep of all the facilities in the area.

The chief minister directed the commissioner to make necessary arrangements for inauguration of balloting.

As there were 13,622 flood affected people (household damage) in Thatta and 22,447 in Sujawal, the chief minister asked the district administrations of Thatta and Sujawal to submit the names of those who had already been provided shelter by the government, NGO and INGOs under various relief / rehabilitation programmes.

In all, 35,284 persons were eligible for allotment through balloting, the Hyderabad commissioner said, adding that the lists of eligible candidates had been put on display at the offices of deputy commissioners, assistant commissioners, Mukhtiarkar and the PDMA. A public notice was also published in May 2016 in local and national newspapers inviting objections, if any, from the affected people who might think that they had been left out. On the advice of Adil Gilani of Transparency International Pakistan, the committee had made some changes to the software developed by Sindh Bank for balloting.

Published in Dawn November 22nd, 2016