LARKANA, May 2: The Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre (MALC) in coordination with Caritas Austria, an NGO, has launched a scheme for construction of 100 houses in flood-hit areas of Qambar-Shahdadkot.
Village Kehar Khan Magsi near Patooja Shakh which was completely destroyed during past year’s floods had been chosen for the construction of first house. The construction work had begun, the medical coordinator of the centre, Dr Farooque Rehman Soomro, told Dawn.
He said that 20 houses would be constructed in the village within three months of time.
Each house would cost around Rs250,000 and the project would be completed by Oct 30, 2008, he said while adding that the worst affected families would then be given the possession of these newly constructed houses.
Two other villages close to Kutchi Pul, near Sindh-Balochistan border, had also been selected for the construction of new houses, he said.
Giving details about the damages caused by the last summer’s floods in Sindh and Balochistan, Dr Farooque said that it had resulted in huge human and monetary losses as thousands of people were displaced due to floods.
He said that according to a report of National Disaster Management Authority 417 people had died — 203 in Balochistan and 214 in Sindh — while 224 were still missing.
The report said that 36,819 houses were “completely damaged”, 321,672 hectares of crops and orchards were damaged or destroyed, 429km of provincial highways and 5,581km of secondary and minor roads were damaged because of floods.
The whole area, agriculture fields, residential places and roads were inundated with two to four feet of water which forced the whole population to move to safer places near the main highways with their livestock and remaining valuables.
He said the centre with the help of Caritas Austria, had provided emergency relief to flood victims in form of tents, food and clothing.
He said approximately 1300 families were given dry ration (edibles) and washing soaps. Ration was supplied on monthly basis, he said.
Three hundred tents were distributed among the most deserving families while two hundred families were provided utensils.
Dr Soomro said that the MALC had recently started a triple merger programme and established centers in Larkana, Kandhkot and Mirpurkhas for free treatment of patients of leprosy, prevention of blindness and tuberculosis.
All laboratory tests for these three diseases were being conducted for free at the centers, he said and added that the Bank Alfalah, Pakistan Petroleum Limited and Sui Southern Gas Company had adopted these centers and bearing its expenses for three years.
Allowance: Employees working in different departments of Larkana will get corporation allowance, said Speaker Sindh Assembly Nisar Ahmed Khuhro.
He was speaking at a public gathering organized by the People’s Labour Bureau and the Watan Dost Employees Federation in Zulfikar Bagh on Thursday night to mark the International Labour Day.
Mr Khuhro the government will pass on this long awaited benefit to employees.
The government was aware of peoples’ problems for which it was focusing on providing peaceful atmosphere for positive growth in every sector.
He was critical of the previous government for shunting out workers and denying them benefits at the cost of nurturing what he called bureaucrats.
He praised the unconditional support of workers to the PPP for economic stability adding that Benazir Bhutto while leading a rally at the KPT Bridge had announced workers to be the backbone of a country’s economy.
He claimed the late Z.A Bhutto declared May 1, a public holiday but in 2001 the government cancelled, it while the PPP coming into power again restored it.