Never-ending debacle: Five more die in drought-ravaged Thar

Inspecting judge observes misadministration in relief-distribution work.

HYDERABAD:

Five more children died in Tharparkar district on Saturday, taking the total death toll for the current year in the district to 560. The deaths are a grim reminder that life in the desert region of Tharparkar is becoming more difficult with each passing day. The persistent drought over the last three years has made it all the more difficult for the 1.6 million strong population of this district.

Add these adverse conditions to the inadequate health facilities and lack of resources available to the residents, and it is no surprise that death has cast a permanent cloud over the district.

At least three of the latest deaths took place in government hospitals. Three-weeks-old Shaizeen, daughter of Mithan Rahimon, died in taluka hospital, Diplo, while a newborn son of Prem Kumar died in taluka hospital, Chachro and a 10-day old son of Mithan Mehar in Civil Hospital, Mithi. According to the medical staff posted to the hospitals, the cause of death of the infants at the Chachro and Diplo taluka hospitals were determined as pneumonia while the cause of the death of the infant at Civil Hospital, Mithi, was ascertained to be haemorrhagic fever. Another two infants, sons of Shafi Muhammad and Rama Bheel, were reported dead from village Hamerabah in Diplo and village Chawnhaar in Islamkot taluka.



Questions on relief efforts

Meanwhile, the Sindh High Court’s relief inspecting judge, Mian Fayyaz Rabbani, carried out a spot check on Saturday at a relief distribution point at Primary School North Colony in Mithi. The judge found the official staff of the district administration, missing and in their place, workers of a political party were distributing the aid items, which included blankets and dates.

The judge told media that the deputy commissioner, Asif Jameel, avoids court proceedings by citing his preoccupation with the relief work. However, he noted that neither the DC nor his staff was present at that particular relief distribution point. “The distribution process appears to be progressing very slowly,” said Judge Rabbani. “If they don’t expedite it, the winter season will pass without the needy people getting this winter relief package,” he observed.

The judge said he will order the DC to submit an explanation as to why the relief work has been handed over to political workers. Ten days ago, Judge Rabbani in a letter had exposed the poor state of health facilities in the district’s largest government hospital in the tehsil, Civil Hospital, Mithi. The judge had particularly highlighted the shortage of specialists and paramedics, as well as the non-existence of a blood bank and burns and orthopaedic wards.

“If these facilities are not available, then what good is this hospital for?” he had asked.

The judge, who had also issued a contempt notice to the deputy commissioner, Asif Jameel, had raised doubts in his observation about the relief distribution process. The judge had issued notice to the DC on November 28 indicating that his office has not been provided details of the relief distribution and its schedule. In his reply, the DC put the blame on his lower staff saying that he had directed them to fax the details to the judge.

“It has been proved that the administration deliberately avoided sharing the details. This kind of behaviour reeks of a conspiracy. I have been expressing doubts about the transparency in the distribution process,” said the judge.

The provincial government claims it is providing free wheat bags of 50 kilogrammes to each of the 259,945 families in the district for a month. The citizens, however, have repeatedly complained of the quantity and delays in the wheat distribution.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2014.