Editor
- What will occur after two months, asks Saeed Ghani.
- Scores of aid works could possibly be carried out with Rs45bn, he says.
- Minister differs with Sardar Sarfaraz about Sukkur rain.
KARACHI: Demanding everlasting aid for residents, Sindh Minister for Local Government Saeed Ghani on Monday mocked the announcement about offering aid to folks throughout Punjab for simply two months, saying it was a political showoff.
The provincial minister’s remark got here in response to the Punjab authorities’s announcement of offering aid to the plenty by slashing Rs14 per unit on electrical energy payments for 2 months — August and September.
In a presser on August 16, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz supremo Nawaz Sharif mentioned the Punjab authorities had ready a aid bundle by reducing the ability tariff by Rs14 per unit for folks consuming as much as 500 items of electrical energy.
“The aid might be given within the payments of August and September,” he had added.
The transfer drew criticism from different provinces with Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) decrying the ‘use of provincial card’ in electricity-related points.
It must be famous that the PML-N holds energy in Punjab in addition to within the Centre.
Talking to journalists contained in the Sindh Assembly premises, Ghani mentioned it was the federal authorities’s duty to supply folks cost-efficient electrical energy.
“Rs45 billion are being expended for aid of two months solely, whereas scores of aid works could possibly be carried out with that Rs45 billion.
“The query is what’s going to occur after two months. The customers might be paying the identical [high] costs,” the PPP chief remarked.
Meanwhile, fearing a ‘sense of despair’ among the many folks of Sindh, Governor Kamran Tessori on Sunday had requested Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah to announce a Punjab government-like aid in electrical energy payments.
Governor Tessori had cited Punjab authorities’s instance and requested CM Murad to allocate funds from the provincial price range for aid to the folks.
“Sindh CM [Murad Ali Shah], like Punjab, ought to present a aid of Rs14 per unit in electrical energy payments,” he had mentioned, saying that its denial could result in a way of despair among the many folks.
Sindh has ‘personal method of’ measuring rain
Addressing the controversy of “report rains” in Sukkur, Ghani admitted that the figures of the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) and deputy commissioner have been totally different.
He mentioned it was as a result of the Sindh authorities had its personal method of measuring downpour in every taluka. Whereas, he mentioned, the PMD had towers solely in particular areas to measure rain.
Contrary to the Met Office report, he backed the district administration’s declare, saying that 281 millimetre rain was recorded in Sukkur metropolis.
“Sukkur acquired 5 spells of torrential rains,” he mentioned.
An official assertion issued by the provincial authorities mentioned on Sunday that Sukkur recorded record-breaking 290mm of rainfall in only a single day.
Sardar Sarfaraz, chief meteorologist on the PMD, on Monday rejected the declare relating to the record-breaking rainfall in Sukkur, terming it “fallacious”.
“116mm of rain was recorded in Sukkur in 48 hours. Rohri close to Sukkur recorded 134mm rainfall,” he mentioned, talking with Geo News.
Praising the administration, the minister mentioned many of the metropolis’s half was cleared of rainwater, whereas work on drainage of water in some areas was nonetheless underway.
