NA Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat expresses its discontent on performance of Provincial Disaster Management Authorities in flood relief

Staff Reporter
Islamabad: The Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat expressed its discontentment on the performance of provincial disaster management authorities. The Committee was of the view that federal government spared all its resources however, the relief could not reach the flood effected people. The Committee decided to call heads of provincial disaster management authorities in its next meeting to discuss the neglect. The Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat made these directions which met in Islamabad today with Ms. Kishwer Zahra, MNA in the chair.
Member Administration PDMA apprised the Committee about the relief and rehabilitation activity carried out in the flood effected areas. He informed that 32 districts in Balochistan, 17 district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 3 in Punjab and 9 and 5 Districts in Gilgit- Baltistan and State of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, respectively were declared calamity hit. As per information gathered through PDMAs, GBDMA and AJ&KDMA, 1739 people died whereas 12876 people were reported injured. Apprising the Committee about the damages caused to public infrastructure, private property and livestock, the Member NDMA informed that 13115 km of roads and 439 bridges were damaged whereas 2048789 houses were damaged partially or fully. He further informed that joint surveys for damage assessment for calculation of financial impact of the losses was in progress and would be completed soon. He said that after the data compilation the government would announce rehabilitation packages.
The Representative of Finance Division apprised that Rs.18 billion had been released to NDMA besides disbursal of Rs.70 billion to flood effected through BISP. He further informed that Kissan Package comprising of 16 different components have been approved by ECC and would be announced after ratification by the Federal Cabinet. The Member NDMA assured the Committee that post audit of all the expenditure would be shared with the Committee on conclusion of the operation. The Members of the Committee were quite skeptical about the performance of PDMAs. They said that public representatives specially in KPK were not taken on board besides relief could not reach the effected people. They suggested to call the provincial disaster management authorities to answer the queries of the Committee members.
The Committee approved “The Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and “The Oil and Gas Regulatory authority (Amendment) Bill, 2022 as proposed by the Government after in-depth discussion. The Committee was apprised that the OGRA Bill aimed to introduced measures to attract foreign investment in establishment of LNG Terminals. The Committee after breifing on Institutional Reforms said that restructuring of government entities, civil service reforms, improving governance and reducing wastage of public money was imperative. The Committee stressed for continuation of the institutional reforms in national interest.
The meeting was attended by Mr. Muhammad Sajjad, Ms. Shahnaz Saleem Malik, Ms. Seema Mohiuddin Jameeli, Ms. Mussarat Rafique Mehasar, Mr. Muhammad Abu Bakr, Special Secretary and senior officers of the Establishment Division, Member Administration NDMA, Member Enforcement PTA, Sr. Joint Secretary Finance Division, Secretary FPSC and other Senior officers of concerned departments.