QUETTA: Members of the Balochistan Assembly from treasury and opposition benches called upon the government on Saturday to declare the parts of the province recently battered by heavy rains and flooding as calamity-hit areas, saying the rainfall had caused heavy losses.

Speaking on the issue during a session of the assembly, Chief Minister Dr Abdul Malik Baloch announced formation of a 22-member committee that would visit rain-hit areas in the province to assess the damage. He said compensation would be paid to people affected by the rain after the committee submitted its report.

Earlier, Sardar Abdul Rehman Khetran of the JUI-F and provincial ministers Abdul Rahim Ziaratwal and Mir Sarfaraz Ahmed Bugti said that fruit orchards and standing crops had been damaged by the rain in Ziarat, Sanjavi, Barkhan, Kalat and other areas.

Seeking calamity-hit status for all such areas, they said growers were already facing huge losses because of 18 to 22 hours of electricity loadshedding on a daily basis.

Referring to the allegation levelled by opposition member Sardar Gul Mohammad Domar about the involvement of Wapda employees in felling of power pylons, the chief minister promised an investigation into the matter and said action would be taken if officials were found involved in it. But, he said, nobody should level such allegations without a proof.

Published in Dawn, May 18th, 2014