MITHI: A mining firm on Monday announced that it would undertake reconstruction of several hundred thatched houses destroyed by a huge fire in Varkrio village, located about 30km from Islamkot town, last Wednesday.

The Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company’s (SECMC) chief executive officer Shamsuddin Ahmed Shaikh said in a statement that 274 families would be rehabilitated in the first phase of the reconstruction process during which they would be provided construction material as well as essential furniture on humanitarian grounds.

Mr Shaikh said that retired Major Shahid Abbasi, the executive in charge of the firm’s disaster management wing, had been directed to look after the process.

The affected families were being provided food and water on a daily basis and this relief would continue for a month, he added.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2017