As the threat of another flood looms across the province, the Sindh government seems intent on not even compensating the flood survivors of the last year’s devastating catastrophe by providing them the promised second installment of funds under the Watan Card scheme. Reliable sources in the Sindh Finance Department told Pakistan Today that no funds would be allocated for the 1.8 million flood-affected families of the province in the forthcoming provincial budget of 2011-12 – scheduled for June 10.
Despite the president and the prime minister instructing the authorities concerned to provide financial assistance to flood survivors, the orders seem to have fallen on deaf ears. After floods hit the Sindh province, the federal as well as the provincial government were supposed to equally share the provision of Watan Card funds to the flood survivors. The centre, however, deviated from its earlier promise and directed the province to rehabilitate the flood survivors on its own.
Under initial estimates, Sindh required Rs 190 billion to compensate the flood-affected families. For the first Watan Card instalment i.e. Rs 20,000 for each of the families, the provincial government arranged Rs 36 billion on its own; however, the authorities could not afford the second instalment as it required another Rs 150 billion.
After the centre’s refusal, the Sindh government had to cut its Annual Development Plan 2010-11 by around 45 to 50 percent for diverting these funds for the rehabilitation of flood-hit areas. Besides, the Sindh government also suspended the project allowances of its officials for utilisation in disaster relief.
The situation could have been better and the flood survivors rehabilitated in a proper manner if the United Nations and some donor countries had provided their pledged amounts of money to Pakistan i.e. US$2 billion in support of flood relief operations and rehabilitation in the country.
Interestingly, Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani, during his visit to Sukkur after the floods, had announced providing Rs 80,000 (the second instalment) of the Watan Card to the flood-hit people; however, later the Finance Ministry instructed the Sindh government to contribute 50 percent of this amount – a daunting task for the ‘cash-strapped’ province.
And as preparations for the next budget enter final stages, no funds have been allocated for the Watan Cards for flood survivors while billions earmarked for MPAs’ schemes, priority programmes and special initiatives, the sources said.
