NAWABSHAH: President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday assured flood
victims of Sindh, government’s fullest support for food, shelter and
relief and vowed to rehabilitate them at the earliest.
According
to a press release, the President, who had an overnight stay at
Benazirabad, brushed aside security and protocol and walked through the
knee-high flood waters in the main bazaar of the Benazirabad town to
meet the stranded people and assured that they would not be left alone
in their hour of need.
Despite rain and their hardship the
people rushed out into the streets, waved, cheered and shook hands with
the President. Women and children standing on the roof tops and
balconies waved and raised slogans of “Jeay Bhutto”, “Jeay Benazir
Bhutto” and appreciated him for being with them at a difficult time.
President
Zardari was briefed about the measures being taken for the 4.9 million
people flood affected people in Sindh and informed that de-watering
equipment was being deployed on a massive scale to drain the water. He
was also informed that the floods had inundated around 4 million acres
of land, of which 1.7 million acres had standing crops.
The
President was informed that the floods had affected 0.8 million people
in Benazirabad alone, it had damaged on a large scale crops and farms;
including 80% of banana, dates, chilli, sugar cane and destroyed cotton
crop - equivalent to 2.3 million bales, besides destruction of 690,000
houses.
The President, accompanied by Chief Minister Sindh Syed
Qaim Ali Shah and local authorities visited various localities. He
shook hands, offered the people solace and said they would be provided
fullest assistance and rehabilitated as soon as the flood waters
recede.
President Zardari directed the local and provincial
authorities to ensure that the farmers be provided relief on priority.
He directed the local authorities to dispatch medical teams and to
provide health care to the families stranded due to heavy flooding.
He
said it was not a time for politicking, but to reach out and help the
flood affected people. He urged the people, political forces and
national institutions to join hands in mitigating the sufferings of the
people. He said the nation celebrated Defence Day three days back and
it was now time to help the affected people as part of the lessons
learnt from the day aimed at forging national unity to overcome
difficult challenges.
The President urged the nation to exhibit
the same spirit and to rise to the challenge. The President who had an
aerial view of the flooded areas of Benazirabad district Wednesday said
he had personally seen the wide scale devastation and directed the
federal, provincial governments and concerned authorities to gear up to
provide relief to the flood affected people.
The President
later had an aerial view of the flood devastated areas of Mirpur, Judho
Kot, Ghulam Muhammad and Nohkot. The President during his two-day visit
to the flood affected areas met the flood victims and held review
meetings with officials to assess the damage caused and reviewed the
relief measures.
The President was also briefed about the scale
of damage and measures being taken to evacuate the people still
trapped, the relief camps set-up to provide shelter, food and health
care to the displaced people.
The President was also informed about the vast scale damage to the crops, property, livestock and the communication network. Online
