SUKKUR: Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah in his meeting with representatives of donor agencies and diplomats of different countries at VIP Lounge of Begum Nusrat Bhutto Airport, Sukkur disclosed that his province was in a dire need of Rs 860 billion to reconstruct collapsed houses, repair road network and revive agriculture, otherwise things would not move forward.

Federal ministers, Ahsan Iqbal, Khursheed Shah, Chief Secretary Sohail Rajput, Major General Ahsan Shakeek of NDMA and others. Diplomats and donor agencies representatives who attended meeting include Deputy High Commissioner Australia Joanne Frederiksen, EU Deputy Head of Mission Thomas Seller, Deputy Head of Mission Denmark Simon Kjeldsen, Charge d’affairs Norway Dr Mah Noor, Italian-AICS Italy Pietro Del Sette, Director Italian Agency for Development Emanuela Benin, Deputy Director General IM UN, Focal Person on Flood relief assistance USAID Xerses Sidhwa, Disaster Management Specialist USAID Mr Ali Gohar Khan, Deputy Operations Managers World Bank Gailius Draugelis, Development Director FCDO UK Sandra Baldwin, Asian Bank’s Dinesh R Shiwakoti, ITO. Minister Japan and others.

CM and chief secretary giving detailed briefing to visiting diplomats and donor agencies’ representatives said that unprecedented monsoon rains in July were 308 percent above average and 784 percent above normal rain in August. Chief Secretary Sohail Rajput told meeting that 24 districts with 102 talukas and 5,727 dehs have been declared as calamity hit area. CM that ex-gratia assistance for remaining cases on account of deaths , grant of compensation on account of injuries, houses damaged and livestock, grant of compensation for crop damage, waiver of interest on agricultural loan and rescheduling of installment payment by deferring it for at least one year, grant of subsidy on agriculture machinery, fertilizers, pesticides, and seeds to farmers of affected areas was required immediately. Murad Shah said that one million tents, three million mosquito nets, two million ration bags for two months, one million jerry cane and one million kitchen sets, 500,000 plastic mats and 500,000 woolen mattress and one tarpaulin was required for relief requirements.

Talking about loss of lives, Shah said that 405 died and 1,074 injured, 105 million damaged houses costing Rs450 million at a rate of Rs 300,000 per houses, 11,734 cattle lost for costing Rs 903.96 million and 3,171,726 acres crops damaged costing Rs 335.44 billion.  

Published in The Daily National Courier, September, 01 2022

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