SUKKUR, Sept 12: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has strongly criticised the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) for being inattentive during the time the recent heavy rains battered the country killing hundreds of people, and noted that the toll it had provided was absolutely erroneous.

NDMA must not mislead the government and the nation, he said while referring to the Authority’s claim that only four persons had died in rail-related incidents in Sindh. “Being the key national institution supposed to handle situation in disasters, it must set its record straight,” the chief minister remarked while speaking to rain-hit people and later representatives of trade and business communities here on Wednesday.

Mr Shah held out the assurance that strict action would be taken against the errant officers of the North Sindh Urban Services Corporation and the Sukkur Electric Power Company, and regretted that people of upper Sindh had to suffer owing to their negligence and many people were electrocuted during rains and flooding in various districts.

He also expressed his regrets over drowning of a large number of people due to an inordinate delay in dewatering work in the affected districts and also over the heavy losses sustained by traders and businessmen whose stocks and assets washed away or submerged in rainwater.

He directed the officials concerned to submit to his office a separate report regarding performance of the NSUSC stating that why generators and dewatering machines had not been operated well in time despite availability of sufficient funds with the corporation .