ISLAMABAD, Aug 23: The People’s Party Parliamentarians has asked the government to announce a Rs5 billion package for rain and flood victims of Badin district and demanded an inquiry into the alleged embezzlement of relief funds.

These demands were made by PPP MNAs Dr Fahmida Mirza and Chaudhry Manzoor while speaking at a news conference here on Friday.

Dr Fahmida also demanded that the people of Badin should be exempted from payment of all kinds of taxes for at least three years and their loans be written off as their crops and businesses were affected by the recent rains and floods.

She criticized the government for forcing the people to leave relief camps and not providing medical facilities to them.

She said the people of Badin were not only suffering due to heavy rains but also due to corruption in the Sindh irrigation department and mismanagement on the part of government officials.

She said the flood was caused due to poor maintenance and wrong designing of the Left Bank Outfall Drain which had developed breaches at 27 points. She said due to the wrong design of the drain, sea water was damaging fertile lands in the district.

Dr Fahmida said trucks loaded with relief food were stopped and parked outside Badin by the district administration for three days to decorate them on the arrival of President Gen Pervez Musharraf. She added that the people had gathered around the trucks but the administration said the goods would be distributed by the president.

She regretted that on the one hand the government was asking the opposition to support the president’s local government system and on the other, it was creating a rift among Nazims and parliamentarians.

She said the army left the relief operation on Aug 4 all of a sudden, leaving the remaining task to the local administration.

The MNA claimed that most of the money from the flood relief fund was spent on tours of the president, the prime minister and government officials to the affected areas.