Mahmood Khan says all available resources being utilised for rehabilitation efforts.

PESHAWAR      -   Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan visited District Charsadda and Nowshera as part of the series of visits following the recent floods where he inspected the relief ac­tivities and damages and also met the flood affectees currently residing in the relief camps.

The Chief Minister univocally stat­ed that repatriation of displaced peo­ple is the government’s priority which will be carried out once the flood wa­ter recedes. Talking to media persons, the Chief Minister said that the feder­al government have filed baseless cas­es against Imran Khan which are void of truth and are based on political vig­ilantism.

He went on to say that the people of Pakistan have shown their trust in Im­ran Khan again which is evident from the estimated amount of Rs 5 bil­lion raised as donations in just a cou­ple of hours through his telethon pro­gramme. These funds would be spent on flood affectees all over the country, he added.

During his visit to the relief camps, the Chief Minister directed the quar­ters concerned to immediately arrange a generator facility in the relief camps to provide an uninterrupted power supply to the flood affectees.

Speaking with media persons, Mahmood Khan clarified that all avail­able resources are being utilized as a part of the rehabilitation efforts. “An amount of Rs 1.00 billion had already been released and summary for the provision of additional 2.5 billion ru­pees has also been approved by the provincial cabinet,” he said.

Briefing the Chief Minister on the oc­casion, the District Administration in­formed that due to the timely intimation, there was no loss of life in District Now­shehra as the people were shifted from sensitive areas to safe places well in time. They told that food and other nec­essary relief items have also been pro­vided to the people affected by floods.

Apart from this, the assessment of damages to houses, crops and other in­frastructure is going on which will be completed very soon. The Chief Minis­ter was informed that male and female doctors along with the relevant staff are present round the clock in Aman­garh Relief Camp to look after the dis­placed people.

Speaking with media persons in Charsadda Sports Complex Relief Camp, the Chief Minister informed that the recent floods were more severe than the floods back in the year 2010. However, the destruction has been con­siderably less concerning the loss of hu­man lives and damage to infrastructure.

He added that this has been made possible due to the good governance of the provincial government, estab­lishment of Rescue 1122, construction of flood protection walls at sensitive points and similar timely arrange­ments by the provincial government.

The Chief Minister was informed that compensation has been paid to the families of the deceased and injured in all the affected districts. In addition, the assessment of damages to crops, houses and other infrastructure is also in progress. Once completed, compen­sation will be provided to all deserv­ing as per the new rates notified by the provincial government.

While responding to a question re­garding encroachments near rivers, the Chief Minister said that infrastruc­tures on the banks of rivers and water­ways in Tank, DI Khan and Swat suf­fered heavy damages but most of these infrastructures were built before the PTI government adding that his gov­ernment had launched a massive an­ti-encroachment drive across the prov­ince and construction on river banks and natural waterways were banned.

In response to a question regarding the cooperation of the federal govern­ment to deal with the flood situation, the Chief Minister regretted that the federal government is behaving foster­ing motherly with Khyber Pakhtunkh­wa province which is unacceptable.

He said that the federal govern­ment has announced packages for oth­er flood-hit provinces which is a good initiative because the people of other provinces are our brothers and sisters. However, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa should also be given its due share.

Provincial Minister Shaukat Yousafzai, Advisor to the Chief Minister Khaliq ur Rehman, members of Provin­cial Assembly Idris Khattak, Ibrahim Khattak, and other officials were also present on the occasion.