HYDERABAD, Aug 5: The Sindh Abadgar Board (SAB) has urged the government to allocate Rs50 billion for rehabilitating displaced people and damaged infrastructure in the province by heavy rains and subsequent floods.

The board which met here on Saturday proposed formation of an autonomous committee of experts and non-political growers to monitor the rehabilitation work.

The meeting said that the floods had left hundreds of villages in ruins, destroyed 1.2 million acres of cultivated and non-cultivated land and damaged hundreds of kilometres of roads and pathways and infrastructure.

The meeting held the officials concerned responsible for the situation and demanded that the federal and provincial governments should order a judicial inquiry into the causes that led to the weakening of 150 years old flood protective bund (FPB) which had until now withstood greater disasters in the past.

The meeting demanded that the funds earmarked for the maintenance and repairs of the FPB, the process of its tendering and names of contractors should be made public and called for an inquiry into the fact that the floodwater was still flowing from Balochistan into Sindh even after the rains had stopped. Whether it was due to damages to the dams in Balochistan, it said.

The board questioned the rationale behind cuts made in the Main Nara Valley Drain, which it said was flowing to its capacity, and demanded an inquiry to find whether some influential persons had made cuts to save their own fish farms and villages.

The meeting demanded that the government should extend financial aid of Rs20 billion to the affected growers to enable them to make their lands cultivable. The flood victims should be provided drinking water, food and medicines on a war footing, the meeting stressed.

The meeting called for closure of cuts made in the FPB and drains so that they could withstand monsoon rains and urged the Disaster Management Commission to seek help from foreign experts in a study on how to evolve protective measures against floods.

The meeting expressed concern over frequent transfers and postings of senior agriculture and irrigation officials and demanded that the practice should be stopped forthwith.

The meeting urged the government to discourage political interference in the irrigation department and free the agriculture extension department from the influence of nazims.

The meeting said that the government should take back Rs150 to Rs200 million sugar cess per annum fund from the district nazims and give it back to sugarcane growers and sugar mills. Greater part of the fund should be spent on agriculture research, the meeting suggested. The meeting urged the government to compensate rice growers who had suffered due to unnecessary of closure of water for a month and advised it to supply them sunflower seed at 50 per cent subsidised rates and one bag of DAP free of charge.

The meeting pointed out that the revenue department should refund the amount paid by growers of 1,424 dehs of Sanghar, Thatta, Hyderabad, Tando Allahyar, Tando Mohammad Khan, Matiari, Ghotki, Nawabshah, Badin, Jamshoro and Umerkot districts, which had been exempted from all taxes following unprecedented rains during 2006-07 Kharif season.

The meeting blamed Wapda officials for unannounced load-shedding and demanded an end to the harmful practice. The digital metres, which were supposed to provide relief to consumers were 20 per cent faster, the meeting complained.