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DERA GHAZI KHAN, July 8: Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi has announced exemption from agriculture taxes to 12 union councils declaring them calamity hit and granted Rs27.5 million for the flood stricken areas of Layyah and Taunsa Sharif. Recent spate in the river Indus wreaked havoc in Layyah and Dera Ghazi Khan districts as a result of which around 240,000 residents of 89 villages were displaced.
Mr Elahi reached Layyah by helicopter on Friday and visited a relief camp set on the premises of Government Girls High School and announced the package.
Earlier, the chief minister was briefed by Layyah DCO Nazir Ahmad at the Circuit House.
He directed the Dera Ghazi Khan range DIG to register a case against the man responsible for a breach in a dyke. The man laid a pipe beneath the spur F1, north, to pump out water for irrigation purposes from the Nala Creek. It weakened the dyke which was later swept by water.
He announced a grant of Rs1.5 million to the Layyah Press Club. He also asked DCO Nazir to prepare a plan for a housing colony for journalists in Layyah.
The chief minister expressed his dissatisfaction on the performance of Dera Ghazi Khan DCO Khusro Pervaiz and inquired him why did he not visit the flood affected areas of Dera Ghazi Khan district.
Meanwhile, Mr Elahi ordered the Layyah district administration to immediately lift the ban on the riverine people for owning private boats. He announced that the provincial government would provide 10 big boats to the district for ferrying people to safe places in case of flood.
Replying to reporters’ questions, he ruled out the possibility of rescheduling of local bodies election owing to flood.
“If elections could be held in Iran during war then what is the problem with us to hold them as schedule,” he remarked.
The chief minister’s helicopter landed at Indus Highway near Raitra in Taunsa Sharif as there was no place left for landing because of flood.
NO RELIEF WORK: The district administration has failed to start relief work in the flood-hit areas as a large number of people have been living in the open.
The affected people told Dawn on Friday that camps and other relief goods had not been provided to them.
More than 20 mauzas of Dera tehsil have been affected by the recent swell in the Indus. Neither the Punjab government nor the district administration has paid a proper attention to the area.
It is learnt that the district administration has only 250 tents, and it has not given even a single tent to the affected families.
The affected people of Sukhaira Arain, Samina Sadaat, Haji Ghazi Gharbi and Sharqi mauzas located near the district headquarters complained that they had to hire boats to reach safe places.
