Plot ownership certificates distributed among flood victims of Shikarpur

Shikarpur: The Sindh government organised a ceremony to distribute ownership rights certificates of house plots to flood victims of the last year in Shikarpur.

The Sindh government had been ca survey of 2.1 million houses in the entire province, and Rs600 billion had been allocated for the reconstruction of houses, said Sindh Energy Minister Imtiaz Ahmed Sheikh at the ceremony.

In Shikarpur, the provincial government has allocated Rs26 billion for the construction of 90,000 houses for flood victims. By the end of this year, 24,000 flood victims would be given certificates of house plots, said Shikarpur Deputy Commissioner (DC) Abrar Jafar.

The event was also addressed by District Chairman Zulfiqar Khan Kumario, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Babul Khan Bhayo and others.

Sheikh told the event that last year's rains had brought a lot of trouble to the people as a total of 15 million people were affected.

He added that despite the difficult situation, the Sindh government reached out to everyone, rescued them and provided them food, rations and treatment facilities.

He said PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had appointed him in charge of the Larkana relief committee and he visited the entire Larkana Division with Bilawal, who met thousands of flood victims and comforted them.

The energy minister said that for the solution of this suffering, the PPP chairman held conferences from Karachi to Geneva, brought the United Nations secretary general to Pakistan and arranged a large amount of money to provide relief to the people.

He said that a survey of 2.1 million houses had been conducted in Sindh, for which the Sindh government had allocated Rs600 billion only for the construction of houses.

Addressing the event, the Shikarpur DC said that the past rains had resulted in extreme hardships for the people as a total of 436 millimetres of rainfall occurred till August 22, due to which there was three to four feet of stagnant water in cities and agricultural lands.

A total of 113 people died and one hundred and fifty-three thousand acres of agricultural crops were destroyed due to the floods, the ceremony was told. It was said that 400,000 people were affected, 141 relief camps were established in which 38,000 people stayed and in this situation, 60,000 ration bags were delivered in time.

Sheikh maintained that food was delivered to the camps, and compensation given to the dead and injured. He added that the Sindh government had completed the survey and today it was distributing plot certificates for the ownership rights of the houses.

About 24,000 people would be given ownership certificates by the end of this year, the ceremony was told.

Addressing the ceremony, Shikarpur District Council Chairman Zulfiqar Khan Kumario said they had helped the people in cooperation with the district administration.

Local women Mahnaz Mahar, Naseem Khoso and Aman Sachan said they were grateful to PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari who had given them the certificates of owner rights.

They said the PPP government had done great things for women, and they would fight hard to get Bilawal elected as the prime minister.

The other recipients of the house ownership certificates included Qaima Khatoon, Mehtab Khatoon, Hadi Bakhsh, Sufi Muhammad Usman, Imran Ali, Suhail Ahmed, Khuda Bakhsh, Sonia Khatoon, Shazia Khatoon, Shabana Khatoon Hakima Khatoon, Hasina Khatoon, Rukhsana Khatoon, Musmat Irshad and Bilqis.