News
Sunday, November 06, 2011
HRCP urges help for rain victims in Nawabshah, SangharLAHORE: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) expressed concern over the condition of the rain-affected population in the Nawabshah and Sanghar districts of Sindh and called upon the government to take urgent steps to address their problems.
A statement issued by the Commission on Friday said, “An HRCP fact-finding mission to Nawabshah and Sanghar districts has noted a plethora of problems facing the rain-affected populations of the two districts. The rains have devastated people’s houses and livelihoods, destroying crops and killing livestock on a large scale. Children and old people are in particularly bad shape and vulnerable to diseases. HRCP has serious concern at the large number of rain-affected people at the mercy of the elements as winter approaches and apprehends that unless they are provided adequate shelter, there is risk of a large number of casualties among them, especially among the children and the elderly.
“There have been many cases of snakebites, but hospitals are quite far away and vaccines are either unavailable or in short supply. Many of the people interviewed by the fact-finding team stated that no government official or elected representative had visited their areas to provide assistance. Besides a lack of appropriate shelter and food, the team witnessed long queues of affected people waiting outside banks for their turn to receive the Rs 10,000 assistance money announced by the government. Many were sleeping in front of the banks at night to be able to receive the money the following day. Because of illiteracy, many have to pay so-called ‘helpers’ to operate the ATM cards given to them to withdraw the assistance money. The team also learned of incidents of criminals snatching these cards from people.
“HRCP calls upon the government to pay immediate attention to the affected people’s problems and urges it to ensure that their woes are addressed on priority before Eid so that they too find a reason to celebrate the occasion.” pr
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk