GILGIT, May 3: Public representatives from Ghizer district of Northern Areas have called upon the government to write off loans of farmers hit by the recent floods, heavy rains and avalanche. In an appeal to the president and prime minister, Ghizer District Council Chairman Dr Ali Madad Sher maintained that the recent rains coupled with heavy snowfall in the second week of April had caused colossal damages to the already impoverished district killing three people, thousands of cattle heads, destroying 10,000 residential houses, millions of trees and over 50,000 cattle-pens in his district.

Mr Sher added that the floods had also eroded roads, irrigation channels and thousands of acres of farmland but they had not received any relief from any quarter to rehabilitate the people struck by the natural disaster.

He said that the people in the district were heavily dependent on the earning from the livestock and small agro-pastoral activities for which they had obtained loans from the ZTBL and other financial institutions which could have been returned only after selling the products.

But he said the devastation caused by the rains and floods had deprived the farmers of their crops and livestock.