All DCs given emergency funds for flood relief work, says Sharjeel

Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon has said that emergency funds have been released to the deputy commissioners of all the districts in the province for helping out the flood victims in their jurisdictions.

Speaking at a press conference at the CM House on Thursday, he said no deputy commissioner had complained that he hadn’t received emergency funds from the provincial government for relief activities.

Memon said the Sindh government had been procuring relief goods for the flood victims on its own. He said the aid received from the brotherly countries was being distributed through the National Disaster Management Authority.

He assured the media persons that relief goods and aid were being given to bona fide flood victims. He appealed to all relevant quarters, including philanthropists, to come forward and work together with full force to help out the people devastated by severe floods. He said the flood disaster was a such severe tragedy that children among the flood victims didn’t have toys to play with, so concerned donors should spend whatever resources they had to support the flood victims.

Memon said the Benazir Income Support Programme was being used to help out the flood victims. He added that the provincial government had been fully concentrating on emergency drainage of floodwaters from Manchar Lake as the water level in the lake had been decreasing and it would further recede in next eight to ten hours. The heavy machinery of the irrigation department and the Frontier Works Organisation had been deployed for the emergency drainage work, he noted.

The minister said the government and district administrations had been making sure that tents and food rations reached the flood victims in the troubled spots without any delay. He said the Pakistan Army and Navy had been conducting relief operations in the hard-to-reach areas in Sindh.