PESHAWAR - Expressing grave concern over non-provision of basic amenities to flood-hit people of Chitral, a social worker and Naib Nazim of Union Council Malakandher, Jamil Chitrali has demanded of the government to provide relief goods to the people.

While talking to media persons on Saturday at Peshawar Press Club, Jamil lamented that no relief goods were provided despite passage of a week of the recent floods, which destroyed the houses of people and basic infrastructure in several parts of the district especially Arsoon area, wherein communication system was totally destroyed.

He informed that after floods devastations in the area, inhabitants were being faced with immense difficulties of basic needs like clean drinking water, shelter and food.

Jamil criticized both the federal and provincial governments for failing to take in time steps and extend relief goods to mitigate the sufferings of the affected families.

He added though the PTI-led provincial government did announce Rs 300,000 compensation to each affected family, which he termed as insufficient for rehabilitation of their damaged infrastructure, and asked to increase the amount to Rs 1 million.

Jamil said the devastated floods that hit most areas in Arason during the last days of the Holy month of Ramazan, but the authorities didn’t response swiftly, due to which flood affectees were being compelled to live in the open-sky, he added.

He maintained that government announcements for supporting the needy remained only to statements and reluctant to give practical shape to it.

He informed that Arason was a very congested area but lack all basic facilities, adding around 35 people had been killed and nearly dozens of houses were completely washed away by the recent flash floods. Criticizing the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), he said the authority neither start any activity nor establish any emergency response center in the flood-affected areas, while it also lack active meteorological system to inform the about precautionary steps before any floods situations.

Chitrali alleged that there is enough distance between the affected areas and Deputy Commissioner Office, which created hurdles to serve the people, therefore, government should transfer the authority to local administration aimed at providing basic facilities and perform responsibilities in a proper way.