KARACHI – The breaches in the Torhi Dyke are lo longer left to provincial ministers: President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday flew from Karachi to Kashmore to inspect the plugging of breaches in the dyke, and after inspecting the state of affairs, ordered Irrigation Minister Jam Saifullah Dharejo to submit a weekly progress report to him.
Dharejo had informed President Zardari that repair works on the Torhi Dyke would take another two months more, according to a press release issued from the Bilawal House. The president, in turn, ordered work to be completed on a war footing basis. While the president was inspecting the plugging of the Torhi Dyke, a large number of people displaced from Kashmore due to the destruction caused by the breach were demonstrating outside the Karachi Press Club, highlighting that they neither had food nor any medicines.
Over seven million people were affected due to the breaches in the dykes on the Indus; the majority of these were displaced because of breaches in the Torhi Dyke. Many of the affected have been unable to return to their homes out of apprehensions of homelessness and more flooding in the forthcoming monsoon season.
“We want to return to our homes but the government has still not plugged the Torhi breach,” said an old man Sheral, a resident of Garhi Khero, a town affected due to Torhi Dyke breach. “There is a threat of another flood, should we go there to die?” he asked. The protestors including women and children had arrived at the KPC from a government-run relief camp set up in Razzakabadi.
According to one of the protestors, Rustam Haji, at least 1,000 persons are still residing in the camp and
