PHOTO: NNI/FILE
MITHI: Addressing the media on Sunday afternoon, Chief Minister Sindh Qaim Ali Shah said that several practical steps are being taken to provide relief to those affected by the famine in Tharparkar district.
"An agreement with a non-government organisation backed by the Asian Bank and the World Bank is underway," he said. The organisation will be working on providing vocational training in nine districts that have the most poverty.
The Chief Minister added that since livestock was also affected, measures will be taken to improve veterinary facilities.
Many basic health units (BHU) were either non-functional or working nominally. All BHUs will now be made functional; doctors and medicines will be provided. The number of mobile dispensaries will be increased from 14 to 20, he informed.
He assured that distribution of food relief supplies will start in all districts within this week, and every family will get 50 instead of 25 kilograms of wheat.
Unemployment was a major problem in the district, but steps are being taken to deal with it appropriately, he added.
Hamza Shahbaz Sharif reacts
Speaking to the media Sunday afternoon, Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) MNA Hamza Shahbaz Sharif criticised the Sindh Government for its handling of the famine situation in Thar, Express News reported.
He said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was contemplating instructing a judicial inquiry into the Thar famine deaths.
“The death of all these children must be investigated,”Hamza Shahbaz Sharif said, adding that while the Sindh Government was busy with festivities, children were dying in Thar.
He informed that the Punjab government was sending relief goods to the people affected by the famine. Eight trucks carrying 65,000 kilogram rice were dispatched today.
COMMENTS (10)
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Cannibal
The 1st step should should ahve been to ask resignation of the MNA & MPAs of the effected area who were enjoing Sind festival when the ppl were dying in their constituency .The govt should be ashamed of the negligence.
Steps to be taken...........another Sindh Festival ?
The term "criminally negligent" comes to mind. This goes way beyond benign indifference.
by eating fried fish and tikka! Well done QAS! This is the way to provide relief.
CM Sindh awaking after a long slumber.....this is democracy...
First fact based article by Javed Jabbar: http://www.dawn.com/news/1091961/tharparkar-a-famine-of-facts
Others are just propagating hearsay. The hallmark of our media pundits.
Perhaps the time the Sindh CM spends dyeing his hair black would be better spent on working for the people of Sindh. Who is he trying to fool ?
What steps have been taken so that this kind of mis-management should not happen again? Has there been FIA against those who were criminally negligent, and that includes secretary health, who is Shah's son in law? How many ministers have resigned/fired for their criminal negligence?
Where is twitter boy now? We need some answers from this patronage!