MITHI, March 1: The Tharparkar district council on Friday demanded of the government to declare emergency in the drought-hit region and launch a massive relief operation to avert consequences of the worsening situation during the harsh summer months.

Members of the district council, who debated heatedly over the single-issue agenda of drought during the Friday’s session, unanimously supported the motion, which called for the urgent government interference by way of providing food and fodder at subsidized rates.

They urged the government to provide these provisions through depot system to meet the food requirements of about a million people and about four million livestock animals in the district.

The motion was moved by Abdul Raheem Khoso.

Another motion, moved by Allah Warayo Bajir, called the government’s attention towards its own revenue record, according to which Thar had suffered nine years of drought during the past 13 years.

Ironically, the motion stated, during these nine years of drought, the concerned officials had recommended to the government to declare Thar as a calamity-hit area after delays of three to four months.

The motion contended that for five years, the Sindh government had taken another three months to respond to reports submitted by the bureaucracy.

It stated that notifications, declaring this area as being calamity-hit, were issued too late, consequently the drought victims were provided subsidized food and fodder for only two months.

This state of affairs, the motion said, had compelled a large number of impoverished people to migrate to irrigated areas in search of sustenance.

The motion, calling for immediate action to mitigate the sufferings of the people, was also passed unanimously.

Moving another motion, Mohanlal said that the region had been devastated by natural calamities, including persistent droughts, a cyclone in 1998 and a devastating earthquake in 2001 but successive governments had failed to provide timely relief to the people.

An identical motion, moved by Mohammad Manthar, was also passed by the district council, which called upon the government to allocate adequate funds in the annual budget to cope with emergencies in any part of the country.

Mr Manthar urged the members of the house to constitute a committee to prepare a contingency plan, containing sustainable solutions to combat drought and other emergencies.

The district council constituted a contingency committee to prepare a contingency plan and forward it to the government.