KARACHI, Aug 5: Sindh Cabinet, which met here on Tuesday, decided to set up a provincial and district relief committees in 13 districts to supervise the relief work, being carried out in the rain-affected areas of Sindh.
The cabinet meeting, presided over by Chief Minister Ali Muhammad Khan Mehar, reviewed the situation arising out of heavy rains and floods in the province.
The provincial relief committee, comprising nine members including ministers and advisors, will be headed by the chief minister.
The Cabinet established district committees for Thatta, Badin, Tharparkar, Mirpurkhas, Sanghar, Hyderabad, Nawabshah, Naushero Feroze, Khairpur, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Dadu and Larkana. Committees for Ghotki and Sukkur would also be set up later.
All committees, to be headed by the provincial ministers, would be responsible for the distribution of relief goods and utilization of funds for the purchase of relief goods and transportation. The Nazims will also be the members of the respective district relief committees. The committees would be allowed to co-opt the district or City Nazim for relief operations.
Earlier, the chief secretary gave briefing to the Cabinet about the relief and rescue operations being carried out in the rain-hit areas.
He said the monsoon rains were moving towards the province of Punjab, but it would likely to hit Jacobabad, Ghotki, Sukkur, Larkana and Shikarpur in Sindh.
The chief secretary said, “We are monitoring the situation on daily basis in the catchment areas. We have taken all precautionary measures,” he added.
He informed the cabinet that 163 people had been killed due to rains and floods so far in the province. A total of 248 people had been injured, while 3,329 villages in the interior of Sindh, excluding those in Karachi and Hyderabad, were affected by the rains and flood. He said that unprecedented losses were occurred to the corps in Tharparkar.
As many as 600,000 people had been affected by rains in the province, he said. Food and medicines were being provided to 67,000 people in the 316 relief camps set up in Sindh. He said that the water was receding in Badin and situation was improving gradually. However, he said that Pakistan Army would continue to help the civil administration in the relief operations.
The cabinet was informed that so far Rs180 million had been received for relief operations from the federal government, Punjab government and other donor agencies including the UNICEF, UNIDO, the government of Japan and the US government.
INQUIRY ORDERED: Sindh Chief Minister Sardar Ali Mohammad Khan Mahar has ordered a judicial inquiry into the mess created at a relief camp, which resulted in firing and death of a person at Kadhan in Badin district on Tuesday.
During the distribution of relief goods at the camp, a brawl erupted causing a casualty.
Regretting the untoward incident, the chief minister directed the administration to ensure that shelter, food and clothing needs of the victims at relief camps would be adequately met.
The chief minister would soon pay surprise visits to the relief camps and personally supervise the relief work undertaken there.—APP