KHAIRPUR, Aug 20: Majority of people dislodged from their abodes in Kandhkot-Kashmore and Jacobabad, have though made it to safer areas in Khairpur district but are still without a roof. These internally displaced persons (IDPs) are either living under the open sky while some lucky, dwelling under the shades of trees.

The government agencies are nowhere to be seen or providing them with food, medicines and other basic needs. Only god-fearing people, including business community provides them with food and clothes.

Some date-palm orchard owners have not only given the IDPs shelter on their land but are also catering to their food needs. These are the orchards which provide jobs to many among them during the harvest seasons. Many IDPs are residing in government school buildings.

Former union council nazim of Luqman, Munir Arain is distributing food to affected families through card system.

Every card holder is entitled to two meals daily with some 100 families putting up in Luqman Girls High School already profiting from the cards. He has also arranged a doctor for taking care of the ailing lot.

Many people are staying along the road pavements near Bhurgari regulator and the National Highway in Khairpur city. The question of survival has forced many to part with their livestock, including buffaloes and cows at throwaway prices while some were found offering their chicks to passers-by at nominal rates.

A group of trade unionists led by Shahbaz Dino Phulpoto visited the flood affected people on Wednesday. He told reporters that uprooted people were living in unhygienic and miserable conditions due to which cases of gastroenteritis among children are on the rise. The administration has been informed about it, he said.

Many elderly women are still in the state of shock because of the traumatic conditions they were bailed out from. Some curse their luck for their upturned situation as their life before the deluge was sheltered and secured. The state of flood affectees in Fiaz Ganj is a little shoddier because of the gastroenteritis which was fast spreading among the dwellers. Most of these people have lost their flocks and those with some are selling their cattle heads to eek out a living.

They told journalists that they were here since the last eight days but not a single official bothered to visit them or arrange for their needs.

They also complained about the lack of health facilities as many IDPs, particularly children were suffering from gastroenteritis.

However, teachers and students of the Mehran University College of Engineering and Technology have set up a camp for collecting donations, clothes, food stuff and other necessities of life. The principal of the college donated Rs50,000 from the college fund and appreciated the spirit of teachers and students in arranging funds for the IDPs.