Flood damage survey completed in 46 districts of Balochistan, KP

A joint survey of damages caused by the catastrophic floods has been completed in 46 districts of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by the National Flood Res­ponse Coordination Centre (NFRCC) on Monday.

The meeting chaired by Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal was informed that the ministry of food security and provinces would settle the issue of procurement and distribution of seeds immediately.

Chairman National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Lieutenant General Akhtar Nawaz, provincial secretaries of agriculture, and other concerned officials also participated in the meeting.

It was informed that out of the 46 districts where the damage survey has been completed 20 are in KP while 26 fall in Balochistan. The survey is still ongoing in 22 districts of Sindh, six of Balochistan, 13 of KP, and two districts of Punjab.

It added the number of teams surveying to be increased so that the exercise could be completed as early as possible.

Earlier in the meeting, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal directed that the requirement of the respective areas and the types of seeds should be determined in advance.

Furthermore, he said relief activities in the flood-affected areas should be expedited due to the arrival of winter besides immediately finalizing the mechanism for procurement of subsidy-based seeds and distribution at the district level.

He said the provincial governments should confirm the availing of subsidy-based seeds as soon as possible.

There should be no delay in delivering seeds to farmers for the Rabi crop, he said adding that the delay would increase the issue of food security in the country.