Forestalling action: Government is prepared for the floods, claims CM

If satisfactory work is not done at Tori Bund, it will not be able to sustain the water flow.

SUKKUR: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has assured that the government was prepared for potential floods. He was speaking to media personnel during his visit to Sukkur.

Upon reaching the Sukkur airport on Monday afternoon, Shah briefed the media about government plans for the upcoming floods this year. He said that even though the Indus River System Authority and the met office had not warned about the onset of floods, the government was prepared. He claimed that the government had taken all the necessary precautions to cope with floods or heavy rainfall.

Shah said that the government issued the required funds to the irrigation department and the officials had been warned to keep a vigilant eye on the changing weather conditions. He further claimed that all protective embankments were strong enough to face the strong water currents.

No direct tax

Shah referred to the Sindh government budget and said that no direct tax had been levied upon the people. He added that the federal government had increased the sales tax from 16 to 17 per cent, yet people were not reacting to it.

He said that his government had made efforts to widen the tax net by including the people who were not paying taxes earlier.

This money would be used in the development works for benefiting the people, he added.

He further added that MQM leaders, Sardar Ahmed, and Faisal Subswari, contributed their input and took active part in the voting process for the budget but they paid little heed to the passage of finance bill.

Preventing the floods

Later, the chief minister went to Kandhkot, where he visited the old Tori Bund embankment which had not been able to sustain water currents and caused the 2010 floods. The work at Tori Bund had started back in 2011 but the strengthening work is still underway.

The breach at Tori bund had devastated  the nearby villages including Qayas Bhayo and Hamid Malik. This time around, 125,000 cusecs of water had arrived in the Indus and the strong water currents were already eroding the dyke near Ghouspur. The irrigation secretary, Babar Effendi, who said that work was sustainable enough to hold the water currents briefed Shah on the development of the work. According to reports, if satisfactory work is not done at the dyke, it will not be able to sustain water flow of more than 300,000 cusecs.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 2^nd, 2013.