Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah in his meeting with a British NGO OXFAM led by its chief executive Mark Ian Goldring said that his government was planning to rehabilitate the affectees of Manchhar Lake and poor people living along the coastal belt. "Our agenda is to start such projects which help in poverty reduction."
He said that the provincial government has identified poverty in the coastal belt has increased due to pollution in the water bodies. The fishermen of Manchhar Lake are also facing serious poverty issues because the lake has turned polluted. Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, Minister for P&D said that people of Manchhar Lake will be provided job opportunities, skill development trainings and small loans to start work.
The chief minister told the visiting delegation that the provincial government had given land to landless women haris and had provided them inputs to cultivate their lands. The delegation chief Mark Ian Goldring said that his organization was working in Pakistan from early 1960s to implement numerous projects in Sindh to improve livelihoods, promote economic and gender justice and to provide humanitarian assistance in both small and large scale disasters.
The chief minister urged them to support capacity building of Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA). It is a new organization and its staff members must be trained in urban flooding. The OXFAM and Sindh government officials would meet once again to finalise the areas where they would help provincial government for poverty alleviation particularly among women.
The meeting was attended by P&D Minister Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, Special assistant to CM Rehana Leghari, Principal Secretary to CM Sohail Rajput, Secretary Finance Hassan Naqvi and others. The Oxfam delegates were Mustafa Talpur, Alamgir Khan and Mohammad Qazilbash.