HYDERABAD: The Awami Tehreek (AT) and Hyderabad Chamber of Small Traders and Small Industry have urged Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah to visit Hyderabad and other districts of the province to assess rain damages.

They have also called upon the federal government to declare Sindh as calamity-hit.

AT central organiser Lal Jarwar has criticised the Sindh government for not utilising budget of municipal bodies in rain emergency.

He said the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) and opposition parties had disappeared in the present conditions. He urged the federal government to declare Sindh as calamity-hit.

In a statement issued here on Thursday, he said the district-level committees of the Sindh government had failed to perform even in emergencies. They were indulged in corruption instead of carrying out relief work, he observed.

He said that in rural areas, livestock had perished and the houses of poor villagers were badly damaged.

He said the rains had damaged standing crops in fields, causing huge losses to growers. The federal and Sindh governments should pay Rs10 million compensation for each life lost in the rain-related incidents and Rs5 million for damaged houses in katchi abadis.

In a statement on Thursday, Hyderabad Chamber of Small Traders and Small Industry president Mohammad Altaf Memon requested the CM to allocate some portion of US government’s $1m flood assistance given to Sindh for the restoration of Hyderabad and Karachi’s infrastructure.

He said the two cities should be declared calamity-hit and emergency should be declared there. Compensation should be paid to the traders who had suffered losses due to rain, he added.

He said that electricity and gas bills’ recovery should be waived for at least one year to help traders and businessmen financially.

He said the recent rains had affected many cities, inundating low-lying areas there.

He said the drainage of rainwater had become a serious problem for the authorities, causing damages to traders’ properties. Due to short circuit in shops, some traders had suffered heavy losses.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2022