Providing relief to farmers first priority, says Sharjeel

Providing relief to the farmers affected by the floods is the first priority of the Sindh government so that they can start cultivation in time.

Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said this in a statement issued on Friday. He said that of the 4,070,614 acres of the cultivable land in the province, the seasonal crops cultivated in as many as 3,773,707 acres had been destroyed by the recent rains and floods.

In order to provide relief to the farmers, he said the Sindh government had fixed the support price of wheat at Rs4,000 rupees kilogramme for the next year. Apart from this, steps were being taken to delay the collection of agricultural loan repayment, he added.

The Sindh government had formed committees to collect accurate data on the damages caused by the catastrophic floods, he said, adding that the committees would start carrying out surveys by Monday.

The information minister said the water level at two barrages in the Indus River had fallen below one hundred thousand cusecs. At the Guddu Barrage, the intake of water flow had been recorded at 87,300 cusecs and discharge at 76,000 cusecs. At the Sukkur Barrage, the inflow was 92,200 cusecs and the outflow 82,000 cusecs. Likewise, the inflow of water at the Kotri Barrage was 203,100 cusecs and the outflow 199,300 cusecs.

Memon said the flood victims had started returning to their homes in areas where the accumulated water had been drained. In various areas of Hyderabad, including the union committees Tando Hyder, Moosa Khatiyan and others, the displaced persons living in government scholls had been sent back to their homes and villages, he maintained.

The district administration was providing transport facilities, tents and rations to the persons returning to their houses from relief camps, he explained, adding that due to the floods, as many as four more lives had been recently lost. A total of 728 people had died and 8,422 had been injured during the flood emergency, he said, adding that the number of dead cattle had reached 340,015.

He said that according to a report, 1,061,788 houses had been partially destroyed and 720,799 completely destroyed. According to a report of the works and services department, 2548 government buildings had been destroyed during the recent rains, Memon added.

He said that the relief activities were under way, and as many as 295,093 tents, 281,669 plastic tarpaulins, 2,309,809 mosquito nets, 749,762 liters of mineral water, 40,575 jerry cans, 7,579 pillows, 4,620 bedsheets and other relief items had been provided to the flood victims, and ration bags had been distributed among 777,120 affected families.