DERA GHAZI KHAN, Jan 6: Hundreds of local people affected by the last week hill torrent are learnt to have refused to get tents and other relief goods, demanding that the government should compensate them for loss of their houses.

Downpour on the Suleman Range catchment area played havoc with farmland, livestock and property of people last week. In Dera Ghazi Khan tehsil, according to the revenue department, standing crop of wheat and fodder over 12,000 acres, besides 17 houses, were almost obliterated.

In Taunsa Sharif tehsil, Jalowali and Chanarwali villages lost hundreds of houses to violent waters. Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, who was earlier scheduled to visit all the affected areas, will now visit Taunsa Sharif alone. Therefore, the affected people of Dera Ghazi Khan are seeing little chances of getting some relief package from him.

The history of hill torrents in the district reveals that in 2000, as many as 98 mauzas were badly affected by floods while in August 2001, Zero Headworks over the Dera Ghazi Khan canal was swept away by the gushing water. Eight people met watery graves in the flash floods after which no less than 395 mauzas (mostly in DG Khan tehsil) were declared calamity-hit.

At least 46 mauzas were hit by strong gushing waters in August 2002 and 78 mauzas in the district remained under the pestilence attack till a year. Hailstorm in the early days of the last year destroyed cotton crop in at least 28 mauzas of the district. Sadly, no relief package has been offered to the affected people here since 2000.