KARACHI, Sept 5: The Chief Minister of Sindh, Ali Muhammad Khan Mahar, on Saturday presided over a meeting of the Provincial Relief Committee to review the losses caused by recent heavy rain and floods in the province, especially the damages to life and property in the districts of Badin, Thatta and Tharparkar.

The participants of the meeting were informed that the rain had wreaked havoc with the lives of innocent people of the province and caused widespread damage to public and private property, including roads and crops.

The officers taking part in the meeting praised the provincial government, civic agencies, NGOs, DCOs and Pakistan Army for their active participation in the rescue and relief activities, including shifting of the affected people to relief camps, provision of food, medicines and other necessities of life.

It was said that on the instruction of the president and prime minister, the federal government had released Rs100million for the relief work in affected areas of the province and Sindh government had provided another Rs67million in this regard.

District Badin had been given Rs40million, Hyderabad Rs15million, Dadu Rs10million, Larkana Rs2.5million and Shikarpur was provided Rs2million for relief work.

The officers present were informed that the Sindh Zakat Department had provided Rs15million for District Badin and Rs10million for District Thatta, to be distribute among the affected people.

The reports on the losses were presented by the DCOs during the meeting. The reports on the relief goods donated by the Punjab government, United Nations Development Programme, World Food Organization, UNICEF, Japanese government and Kuwaiti government, besides various other institutions were also presented.

The chief minister directed all the DCOs to furnish complete reports, with details of disbursement through the district relief committees, at the earliest to the provincial committee so that the affected areas could be declared calamity-hit and the remaining funds be released. Besides, the next phase of rehabilitation could be initiated at the earliest in which the affected people would be compensated for damages to their property, and repairing and reconstruction of roads could be started, he added.

Sardar Mahar said firstly the families of the people killed in rain-related incidents would be given compensation cheques and asked that in this regard final list be provided in a couple of days.

It was decided that the families of the victims, who were bread-earners, would be given Rs100,000 each while other families would be given Rs50,000. The chief minister instructed the officials to maintain transparency in payment of compensation and demanded that a complete record be kept.

Those who attended the meeting included Senior Finance Minister, Syed Sardar Ahmed, Minister for Works and Services, Arbab Ghulam Rahim, Minister for Population Welfare, Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh, Minister for Wildlife and Fisheries, Mir Manzoor Panhwar, Minister for Auqaf, Zakat and Ushr, Dr Irfan Gul Magsi, Minister for Revenue and Relief, Altaf Unnar, and Minister for Minerals and Mineral Resources, Haji Usman Malkani.

Minister for Law, Chaudhry Iftikhar Ahmed, Minister for Women’s Development, Dr Saeeda Malik, Adviser to the CM for Local Government, Wasim Akhtar, Adviser to the CM for Home and Coordination, Aftab Ahmed Shaikh, Brig Arif Masood from Pakistan Army, and Sindh Chief Secretary, Dr Mutawakil Kazi, also attended the meeting. — PPI