The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has devised a tentative plan for coping with current monsoon season floods and rains in the province, for the purpose about Rs 700 million has so far released to all districts on emergency basis under the plan.
The provincial government has been quite alert to tackle with any floods situation in current monsoon season, said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Minister for Information, Mian Iftikhar Hussein, while briefing media men about floods precautionary plan here on Saturday.
He said that the government had chalked out a special floods contingency plan keeping in view last year's devastating floods in the province. He said that the monitory system has been developed to collect floods information on daily basis.
Similarly, he said that the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) had also developed an emergency cell in this regard. He said that the provincial government had so far released Rs 700 million to all districts on emergency basis in the province.
Mian Iftikhar explained that the government had been identified safer sites and areas at every district level for provision for shelter facility in case of displacement by floods in province. More than, 100 boats have been handed over the Pakistan Army for evacuation of floods stranded people, he maintained. In case of floods displacement, he said that they had made special arrangements for more than rupee twos billion to provide food assistance.
Rejecting the media reports that the provincial government did nothing for last year's floods affectees, he refuted the perceptions and said that the government had timely responded to floods hit people, saying that all possible resources along with local and foreign aid had extended to mitigate suffering of floods affected people.
He maintained that the foreign donor organisations had acknowledged that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had rapidly responded to floods hit people in the province. Giving details of relief and distribution of funds among floods affectees, he said that the government had distributed Rs 6 billion through Watan cards scheme out of which Rs 3 billion were contributed by federal government.
He said that the province had lost US $2.5 billion in its history's worst flash floods in and torrential monsoon rains last years, because of which more than, 290,000 people were displaced, whereas 1,015 died and nearly 997 left injured. He explained that the provincial government had issued Watan cards to around 2,721,139 out of total 2, 900,000 applicants in the province. About the deprived people of Watan cards, he said that due to technical fault, about 15,000 people wee not facilitated, but government had issued list of deprived affectees through media, because of which more than 3,000 people availed the benefit last week.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had released rupees 1.22 billion for flood affected people from July-27 up to current financial year, he said and added that about Rs 778.3 million were released as aid and Rs 444.9 million as heirs of deceased persons.
The provincial minister said that the government had allocated Rs 2.4 billion for more than 1,174 educational institutions, saying that about 343 schools were rehabilitated through foreign aid. He said that the government had so far spent Rs 5 billion under different heads for floods affectees except foreign donors expenditures in the province.
To a query, he replied that the ANP has always respected judiciary and parliament decision, and stressed the need for accepting power of each other. He said that there is no confrontation between government and institutions, especially judiciary.
Mian Iftikhar said there is essential to respect decisions of executive and parliament as well and accept it as supreme. To another question, he responded that the deprived floods affectees will get compensation package through Watan cards within next two month.
Comments
Comments are closed.