Chief Minister deplores indecent and inhuman statements issued about the flood-affected people who have come to Karachi.
Karachi
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah deplored on Sunday that some indecent and inhuman statements were issued about the flood-affected people who have come to Karachi.
“Karachi is part of the province, and we are making arrangements to shift them to the camps and will look after them,” he said and added they were in pain, and their dispossessions [in the flood] demand that each and every one of us, according to our status and position, should help them to rehabilitate.
This he said while talking to the media just after laying a floral wreath, offering fateha and recording his impressions in the visitors’ book opened at Mazar-e-Quaid to observe the 74th death anniversary of the father of the nation, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
According to Sindhi version released by CM’s Media Consultant on WhatsApp, Murad Shah said so far 18000 flood-affected people have shifted to Karachi from different parts of province.
Watch Video: How you can take rainwater from Sindh to store it in an upcountry dam
To a question about floods, he said that the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres after visiting the flood-affected areas said he had never seen such a catastrophe. “More than 1.5 million people have been displaced, of them over 600,000 shifted to camps,” he said and added he requested the UN Secretary-General for the assistance of tents and medicines.
Murad Shah said that he has released the budget allocated for the purchase of medicines so that flood-affected people facing different ailments could be treated properly.
To a question, the CM said that standing crops worth Rs.50 billion have been washed away. “I have discussed with the UN Secretary-General that we would have to offer an agricultural package, otherwise the grower would not be able to sow Rabi crops,” he said and added he was trying to dewater agricultural lands so that Rabi crops could be planted by the first week of December.
According to Shah his government is trying to prepare at least 75 percent of agricultural lands for the wheat crop. “We have lost our standing paddy and cotton crops in this Kharif and would not be able to afford to lose Rabi crops,” he said.
Shah agreed to a question that K-Electric, Hesco, and Sepco have failed to deliver. “I am sorry to say that our power distribution companies, particularly the Hesco and Sepco had no contingency plan to continue power supply at least to the pumping stations involved in pumping out rainwater from the towns and cities.
To a question, the chief minister said that the UN Secretary-General has personally witnessed the rain-induced floods devastation in Pakistan, particularly in Sindh and Baluchistan and the UN Session is due in which a climate-induced humanitarian crisis of epic proportions in Pakistan would be discussed. “I am sure the international community would help us to face the situation and rehabilitate the affected people,” he concluded. (PR)
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