Devastating floods: DC Chitral under fire for 'poor performance' in relief/rehabilitation

The absence of an efficient deputy commissioner in the district has increased the miseries of the flood victims manifold, as the district baboos have done nothing for rehabilitation of the victims except holding meetings to take stock of the situation.
Hundreds of displaced families in Reshun, Mushgol, Saht, and other areas are living amid pitiable conditions in the caves or under the sky without proper shelter. The people of the area have demanded the government to replace DC Chitral Aminul Haq including his subordinate baboos.
They said that the C&W and the Public Health Departments are in deep slumber as most of the areas including Chitral town are without water while the road network to Lotkuh and subdivision Mastuj has completely been damaged.
The incompetence of the district administration could be judged from the miseries faced by the people of upper Chitral and Lotkuh. There is a severe shortage of essential edible items and the administration is yet to start work to repair the damaged roads.
The people complained that a famine like situation has been created in parts of upper Chitral and Lotkuh. Some cunning shopkeepers have also started fleeing the masses as 1 KG ghee is being sold at Rs350 at Booni Bazar right under the nose of assistant commissioner Mastuj.
Civil society activists, lawyers, doctors and common citizens expressed deep concern over the silence of the provincial and the federal governments, and demanded that work on the restoration of damaged roads and bridges should be done on war-footing.
Let alone the floods victims, they added, people in upper Chitral and the Lotkuh areas are living in helpless conditions due to unavailability of essential items of daily use.
They severely criticised the PPP MPA Sardar Hussain and asked him to stop jumping in the air over the visit of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan, saying that it was no solution to the huge losses faced by the people.
They said that during the visit of the prime minister to Koragh, Sardar Hussain gave an impression as the damage done by the floods was minimal. They also severely criticised the PPP MPA over his trademark art of flattery during the visit of Imran Khan to Booni.
Despite tall claims of the provincial government, they added, the people are facing disease, especially skin problems. The work on the damaged roads is yet to be started while the elected representatives could be seen facilitating the "begmatt" of tiny VIPs, making reservations for them in choppers deputed in the area to airlift the stranded people.
An official of FOCUS Humanitarian Assistance Programme, a subsidiary of Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), said that they had enough stock of non-food items but due to unavailability of a chopper, they could not airlift the relief items to the flood-hit areas.
He said that the organisations had trained volunteers in different villages right from Arandu to Broghil, who are working in the flood affected areas round the clock and had set up tent-villages for the victims.
"The AKDN choppers is standby in Islamabad for the last four days but it could not make it to Chitral due to bad weather [and] the moment the chopper is here, the relief items will be airlifted to flood-hit areas," he added.
The people also criticised the military for slow pace of work in repairing the damaged road infrastructure, saying the heavy machinery of the FWO is yet to start work to repair the damaged roads and bridges.
They called upon Corps Commander Peshawar Lieutenant General Hidayat-ur-Rehman to take notice of the slow pace of work despite passage of so many days, saying that he is the son of northern areas and he must not leave the people at the mercy of God at this testing time.
Despite repeated attempts, the DC Chitral and the C&W officials could not be contacted.
Talking to Business Recorder, Amina Waheed, Exen Public Health Department said that arrangements had been made and supply of water to the residents had been restored on temporary basis. She said that the meteorological department had warned of more floods due to which the work on the damaged water supply schemes would start after the flood warning is over.