Eid for 10,000 flood-affected families in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

PESHAWAR: Over 10,000 flood-affected families in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa celebrated Eidul Fitr in relief camps on Friday and received no special package for the festive day as the government failed to disburse the compensations even in those districts where the survey had been completed for the purpose.
The devastating floods hit the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on July 28 affecting over six million people in the province. Soon after the calamity, the provincial government set up 1,100 relief camps in schools and other government buildings accommodating 11,50,000 affectees.
The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) officials said the provincial government strived hard to resettle the affected families in their native areas before Eid, but this gigantic task could not be carried out for a variety of reasons.
They informed that 9,227 families housed in 647 schools and some in other camps are still shelterless and they spent their Eid in the relief facilities. The flooding badly affected the districts of Peshawar, Charsadda and Nowshera where thousand of families lost houses to the flood and 7,000 families of the three districts spent their Eid in the relief camps.
In Charsadda alone, 3,703 families celebrated their Eid in 189 schools where they were provided food and shelter only. There was no festivity in these relief camps.
In Nowshera, 3,677 families housed in 228 schools observed the Eid in relief camps, while in Peshawar district 547 families observe their Eid in 43 relief camps set up in schools.
The officials said that so far 6,147 food items had been distributed to all the 9,227 families. However, the shelterless affectees told this scribe that they received no Eid package; neither in cash nor in kind.
Besides these districts, the flood affectees also spent their Eid in camps established in Bannu, Swat, Mardan, Shangla, Lakki Marwat, DI Khan and Swabi.
Initially, the provincial government has decided to distribute Rs20,000 compensation for damaged houses on the eve of the Eid as a special package on the festive day. The assessment for the package was also completed in at least three districts, Nowshera, Charsadda and Dir Upper.
All arrangements were put in place for the disbursement of the compensation, but as other provinces changed the payment criteria for the compensations at the Council of Common Interests meeting in Islamabad on Monday, the provincial government deferred the payment. It said that as the data from all the affected districts could not be gathered before Eid, therefore, any package to the affectees was not possible.
They PDMA officials said that as the flooding also affected 55,425 teachers, students and other government officials, which affected the assessment of the losses and disbursement of the compensation.
During a visit to the camps in Charsadda it was found that government officials did not visit these camps. The affectees in the native village of the Provincial Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Barrister Arshad Abdullah said the minister had distributed Rs500 Eidee to each child of the village while in camps they anxiously waited for any special package even on the Eid day.
One Jamil living in one of the camps in the district said: “This is the most miserable and painful Eid for me. I used to give Eidee to relatives and the poor on Eid, but today I myself need it.”