PPP leaders start echoing flood victims’ grievances

Agha Siraj Durrani seeks inquiry against Shikarpur administration

HYDERABAD:

Although complaints of the flood victims and political rivals of the Pakistan Peoples Party against inadequate relief measures abound, some leaders of Sindh’s ruling party have also started echoing the same concerns.

Acting provincial governor Agha Siraj Durrani on Saturday sought an inquiry against the district administration of Shikarpur over its failure to serve the displaced people. “I have all the documents and proof of whatever is being done in Shikarpur. I will hand them over to the chairman [Bilawal Bhutto Zardari] and action will be taken,” he said while talking to the media in Shikarpur.

He said that he has also complained to Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah. He deplored that the administration has completely ignored Garhi Yaseen Town in relief efforts.

Separately, PPP MPA Nawab Sardar Khan Chandio, who belongs to Kambar-Shahdakot district, said at a press conference that he is not satisfied with the Sindh government’s response to the flood calamity. “If government departments were capable, the losses would not have been so huge,” he added.

He bemoaned that Irrigation Department officers and staff cannot be seen in the field. “We forcibly bring them in our own vehicles to do this work for us.”

The MPA claimed that the Irrigation Department had failed to de-silt all small and big saline drains after the 2010 floods owing to which this year the rainwater flooded our villages and agricultural fields. “There were torrential rains and losses would have certainly occurred, but the magnitude would not have been so huge if the Irrigation Department had been capable [of doing its duty].”

Meanwhile, the rain affect people in Larkana’s UC Jumo Agham blocked the way of MNA Faryal Talpur and chanted slogans against the provincial government.

They said that their houses have been destroyed and that nothing is left for their survival but they are not receiving adequate aid. They said even Talpur has come empty handed.

 

 

Published in The Express Tribune, September 19^th, 2022.