Reporting on flood damages

MUZAFFARGARH: District monitoring officer Tariq Mehmood and his teams are monitoring flood relief distribution centres regularly and a survey has already been initiated to assess flood losses in the district.

District coordination officer (DCO) Tahir Khursheed directed all other officers to submit daily reports on relief and rehabilitation efforts throughout the district.

Chairing a meeting, the DCO said that the government was striving to mitigate the suffering of flood victims. ”Monitoring systems had been evolved to evaluate the performance of departments in relief and rehabilitation work,” he said, adding that any negligence in this regard would be severely punished.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Railways (PR) will re-start train service between Multan and Kot Addu from September 25 and rehabilitation work is in progress for this purpose. Railways administration has also called in extra workforce from the Rawalpindi division and some 550 railway workers are taking part in repairing the railway tracks damaged by the floods. According to officials, the Muzaffargarh-Kot Adu and Kot Adu-Kashmore sections remained closed from the last 40 days due to heavy flooding in the Indus River. Three trains including the Mehar Express and Thal Express and Khushal Khan Khatak Express were also affected in the flood. A report completed by railway authorities revealed that heavy flood completely destroyed 68 km long railway tracks in Multan Division including 55 km between Muzaffargarh to Kundian and 13 km between Kot Adu to Kashmore section, while 16 km was partially damaged by flood.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th, 2010.