The government has decided to increase the net amount of flood relief assistance program for flood-affected families to 70 billion rupees from initial assessment of 28 billion rupees.
This was announced by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, while chairing a meeting of federal cabinet in Islamabad on Tuesday.
He said the increase has been made keeping in view the gravity of the situation due to floods.
The Prime Minister said a separate grant of 15 billion rupees has also been made for Sindh, 10 billion rupees each for Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and three billion rupees for the flood affected people of Gilgit-Baltistan.
The Prime Minister said the relief assistance amount is being distributed through Benazir Income Support Program which has disbursed about 20 billion rupees so far.
He said one million rupees is being given to the family of each deceased person in the floods.
Shehbaz Sharif said friendly countries are contributing generously for relief of the flood victims due to increase in awareness at international level regarding the disastrous situation of floods.
He said relief assistance from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency, the United Arab Emirates, Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, Jordon, the United States and others continues while the United Kingdom has increased its initial assistance from 1.5 million to 15 million pounds.
The Prime Minister lauded the joint efforts of all Ministries, federal and provincial governments and institutions engaged in flood relief activities.
It was told that the worst floods of Pakistan’s history wreaked devastation in 81 districts across Pakistan, including Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir.
The meeting was apprised that 1,325 people, including women and children were died and over 12,700 got injured in the flood and rain related incidents in the country. Besides, over 1.6 million houses, 246 bridges and road infrastructure of over 5,000 kilometers were damaged, while 7,50,000 livestock was killed due to floods.
The National Flood Response and Coordination Centre informed the meeting that around 90 percent of flood hit area can be made cultivatable for upcoming wheat crop; otherwise there is a serious threat of a food crisis in the country.
The Prime Minister, on the occasion, expressed his concern over illegal construction of hotels in the River Bed in some areas like Swat due to human negligence. He directed the authorities concerned to ensure effective implementation of zoning laws regarding the use of land in the River Bed area to prevent devastation in future. He said we should refrain from doing polities on such issues.
