Rehabilitation: Flood-affected areas to be declared calamity-hit

Minister reviews efforts to repair damaged electricity infrastructure.

MULTAN: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has ordered the relevant authorities to declare all flood-affected areas calamity-hit, State Minister for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali said on Saturday.

He announced this during a visit to flood-affected areas of Multan.

“After the decision, the taxes of flood-affected areas will be waived,” he said. Ali said that the prime minister had directed him to visit the areas and to make arrangements to repair the damaged electricity infrastructure in the flood-hit people.

The Multan Electric Power Company (Mepco) chief briefed the minister about the ongoing efforts to rebuild the damaged electricity pylons.

Later, talking to reporters, Ali had hard words for the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leadership. “PTI has no place in the hearts of the Pakistani people,” he said.

Ali visited the flood-hit areas in Multan and distributed aid. After his departure, some of displaced people attacked the trucks carrying food bags. There were around 400 people who tried to climb onto a truck at once.

In the ensuing stampede, 20 women and children received minor injuries while trying to get their hands on the food bags. Among the victims were some Mepco employees who hit out to stop people from attacking the trucks. The brawl ended only after all the food bags had been carried away by the flood victims.

This was the sixth such incident at relief camps in three days in Multan and Muzaffargarh.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 21^st, 2014.