LAHORE: The political leadership, including PPP parliamentarians from the flood-hit districts of Sindh, lamenting the slow pace of relief work in the heavily affected areas, have demanded ‘more’ from the government to save the suffering population. Senior leaders of Sindh, including former chief ministers, federal ministers and nationalists, have termed the relief work being carried out by the Provincial Disaster Management Authority and other government bodies as insufficient.
Calling for concrete measures for the rehabilitation of flood affectees, curbing the chances of the outbreak of disease and resolving the prevailing threat to food scarcity, the Sindhi leaders are afraid that the apathy of the influential politicians and bureaucracy can cost a severe loss to the population which is yet to be compensated properly for the loss it bore in 2010 floods.
Ayaz Latif Palijo, Awami Tehreek president and a nationalist leader, said that at the moment when a major portion of Sindh had been devastated by rains, the PPP leadership was merely busy in press briefings or photo sessions rather than providing any solution to address the public grievances. He said nearly 20 districts of Sindh were affected with the current spell of rain which had left nearly 8 to 10 million people shelterless. Moreover, he said, the calamity had also played havoc with livestock population and approximately 0.5m to 0.7million cattle, the major source of people’s survival, died in the flood. He said even during the last year’s flood, the contractors and the PPP influential were merely focusing on the approval of their bills to mint money from the national exchequer and had no concern with the public woes and a similar situation prevailed now.
Ayaz Palijo further said that the affectees of Tori Bund in the year 2010 were yet to be rehabilitated properly whereas the present government had not only set up a single tent city in any major district to provide shelter to the flood-hit population. He lamented that Sindh Governor Ishratul Ibad Khan did not pay a single visit to the flood-hit area of the Interior Sindh which did not show a good sign.
MNA Nawab Yusuf Talpur, a former Federal Minister, from district Umer Kot, one of the worst-affected districts of Sindh visited by the prime minister today (the day of filing of report) stated that he had sensitised Mr Gilani about the grievances of the people of the area. He said the PM had addressed a big gathering in his district and had promised to deal with their woes at the earliest. Providing details of the loss, he stated that 0.2million people were affected by the rain in his district out of which a major population was living in the open.
Faizan Bangash
