ISLAMABAD In the absence of local bodies, the provincial governments are facing difficulties in managing reliable data of flood-affected people in over 70 floods devastated districts across the country. The donors were reluctant to provide financial aid for the rehabilitation of the flood victims and sought a comprehensive and reliable data about the damages caused to the lives and properties in the flood-hit areas but in the absence of proper mechanism at town, union council and village level government a number of difficulties are reported in preparing data of losses caused to the lives and properties of the people in the affected areas, sources in the government informed. The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moons appeal to the world community for about $460 million aid for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of flood-hit areas is unlikely to get warm response from the comity of nations as all the states intending to donate for the flood affected people wanted a credible and transparent mechanism for aid disbursement. Sources aware of the development informed TheNation that the data provided by the administrators was not proper as they had little access to the people at local level and again relied on the government machinery which made the entire exercise murky in the eyes of the international as well as local donors who wanted a transparent system in place. It is generally believed that it were the local governments that had access to the people at grassroots level so the assessment of losses as well as displaced families data could be gathered in much transparent fashion had the system was not ended up by the rulers. Unfortunately, after the dissolution of local governments last year, there is no such political set-up available at district, Tehsil, town and union council levels to cope with this crisis situation. Despite facing a challenging situation in the flood-ravaged areas, the government has been totally ignoring 80,000 elected representatives of former local governments with whose help it could make the task easy. The affected people claimed that the estimates of their losses caused due to high intensity floods were more than the assessment made by the District Management Officers in their respective districts. Therefore, the figures being released by the provincial governments through their district administrators regarding the losses to the life and property were least authentic. Former Chairman of National Reconstruction Bureau Daniyal Aziz said only the peoples local representatives could help the government in accumulating a complete and credible data at this critical moment, as they are all deep-rooted in the masses at grass roots level. Had there been a local government system in place, the federal and provincial governments would have no difficulty in collecting data and assessing life and property losses, he said. The provincial governments, setting aside their political agenda, should call a meeting of former local government representatives and involve them in relief and rehabilitation activities at a larger scale, Daniyal added. He said a viable network was required to take up this gigantic task, which is only possible while mobilizing community through their local representatives, Citizen Community Boards and Civil Society Organisations.