HYDERABAD: Sindh Minister for Information, Transport and Mass Transit and Focal Person for Rain Emergency in Hyderabad Sharjeel Inam Memon said Sunday that the ongoing rains destruction had affected entire country.

Addressing a press conference at Shahbaz Hall Shahbaz Building in Hyderabad, he said it was our message to all political parties that we were ready to sit together for the sake of the people. Sharjeel said said that Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had directed the Peoples Party workers to actively participate in rescue and relief operations in KP and Punjab. He said that millions of people were looking towards the government, political parties and media.

Sharjeel said to political parties that it was a need of the hour that apart from political differences, we should work together for our people, adding that we could do politics only when there were people and county. He informed that next few days would be more difficult as floods were coming from the upper areas. He said that our effort was to rescue affected people first and then do their rehabilitation and added that there had not been such a disaster in the history.

He informed that 441 deaths had been reported during the rains while 14,930 had been injured and 94,089 cattle had been killed. He said that 6,87,702 houses partially and 9,931 houses completely had been destroyed while standing crops on 31,62,219 acres had also been destroyed. Besides this 12,51,881 families had been affected by rains and floods and 44,42,021people had been displaced while around 5 million people had been affected. He said that 2328 km of roads, 60 bridges, 32 shops and 6 mosques had also been destroyed.

He informed that 1766 flood relief camps had been established throughout Sindh and 485759 people were residing in relief camps He informed that PDMA had provided 89815 tents, 30710 tarpaulins and distributed 35424 ration bags while NDMN had distributed 7443 tents 8900 tarpaulins and 4780 ration bags to the rain-affected people so far. He said that wherever there were relief camps, the administration and philanthropists were giving cooked food to affected people.

He appealed to philanthropists and NGOs to give ration or other relief goods wherever they want but it would be better to contact the administration first so that more and more affected people could be equally helped and in this regard they could contact the PDMA control room number 03355557362 and 02135381810. He said that every affected family would be given Rs 25,000 under Benazir Income Support Programme adding that they knew that there had been a lot of damage, but even this amount would help affected people. He said that millions of people had been affected and thousands of people were participating in relief activities.

He said that 85 percent of the areas of Hyderabad city were got cleared and drainage work was still going on, while 15 percent of the low-lying areas were inundated and the situation in Hyderabad (rural) was very bad. Replying about propaganda on social media he made it clear that none of their representative for the sake of saving his land inundating people as it had categorically been said that not to submerge any village to save their lands adding that if anyone tried submerging villages by saving his lands, action would be taken against him. He said that Pakistan Army and Navy where needed was helping the civil administration while all the institutions were helping the people in this national tragedy.