RAJANPUR: The Punjab government is handing out limited relief items to the flood victims while Pakistan Army’s chopper service is providing relief goods to around 400 stranded people per day in south Punjab, officials told The Express Tribune.
The acute shortage of relief items has been observed in areas located in the south of Muzaffargarh and in three tehsils of district Rajanpur.
“We are being ignored for the past week,” complains Azam, a flood victim, implying that he and his tribe of 200 have not received proper food or tents. They have pitched camp near the roadside in Fazilpur village of district Rajanpur.
The tehsildar visited us two days after our arrival and told us categorically that the government could only provide food to 50 people, not to 200, he said. One-third of my tribe went hungry for two days while women and children ate a few crumbs, he added.
Not only food, we are also being refused tents, he bemoans. The floodwaters of the Indus have washed away our homes on the eastern side of district Rajanpur while hill torrents swept away houses on the western end.
He says that since the district was hit from both sides and the path leading up to it was cut off, it added to our sufferings. “We could not receive any food, either.”
Saifullah Bakhar, a social worker belonging to Fazilpur, said he contacted the DCO and commissioner to inform them about the critical situation, but they told him that they do not have enough relief goods to take care of all the flood victims.
District Coordination Officer Rajanpur Muhammad Usman confirmed that the district administration is providing limited relief items to the flood-stricken people. “Our first preference is to provide food to women and children,” he said.
People in the southern parts of Muzaffargarh including Wasandewali, Rohilanwali, Shahjamal, Shaher Sultan and Jatoi are still awaiting relief items to arrive. The people have amassed their luggage on the roadside near the Chanab embankment.
“The district administration has not even provided them a tent to shelter their children,” said Raza Shah whose mango garden and 60 acres of cultivated lands have been inundated. Now he is on the road with his family.
He said the stranded people needed boats to move their families to safety “but the government has completely ignored them”. Only philanthropists from Multan and Muzaffargarh have been distributing charity among the flood survivors, he added.
DCO Muzaffargarh Farasat Iqbal said that the district administration has provided boats to the survivors. This area has been rescued by the army.
Major Farooq Virk of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) told The Express Tribune that the army is running its rescue operation with 12 helicopters from Multan station. However, sources in the army said that five to six choppers are operating in the entire district while two are busy picking and dropping VVIPs such as Corps Commander of Multan.
They said that each helicopter could carry relief items sufficient for only 35 people. Major Humayun, a pilot of a rescue chopper, told The Express Tribune that he tried his best to ferry relief supplies to all the stranded people of the city. Those living in the district’s south were in most need of relief goods, he added.
Col Aamir Toor, who also flies a chopper, said that around 3,000 stranded people of Wasandewali, Rohilanwali, Shah Jamal and Shaher Sultan still needed relief goods. He said that the chopper could only provide relief items to around 80 people per day out of the 3,000 marooned in those areas. The maximum flying time for a chopper is seven hours.
However Director General Relief and Crisis Management Department Rizwanulalh Baig told The Express Tribune that the department has up to now provided 63 trucks laden with relief supplies and 4,134 tents to district Rajanpur while 150 trucks and 1,782 tents have been distributed in district Muzaffargarh.
He promised to probe the mechanism of distribution of relief items among flood survivors.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 24th, 2010.
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