Punjab concludes survey of flood victims

The Punjab Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) said on Friday that the survey of households impacted by the floods in Punjab was finished. This is a big step forward in the province’s efforts to help people recover from the floods.

Irfan Ali Kathia, the PDMA Director General, claimed that the floods started on August 26 and affected 27 districts in Punjab. He stated, “The survey, which started on September 27 with the help of 11,500 field workers, is now finished.”

He further said that just two tehsils, Rojhan and Sadiqabad, could not be covered since their katcha terrain was too far away.

He called the PDMA survey “the most open in Pakistan’s history” and vowed that all confirmed victims would get their due payments this month. “By the end of this month, all 600,000 affected families will have received their share of the money.”

The DG added that thus far, about 575,000 inputs had been made into the system, and he gave more information. He went on to say, “Some entries are still pending because of internet problems, but almost 500,000 people’s data has already been processed.”

The floods damaged or destroyed 186,073 homes and ruined more than 1.44 million acres of crops, according to PDMA. It has been thoroughly verified that 214,493 people are real, while the rest are still going through different phases of verification.

In the meantime, 189,000 bank accounts for the beneficiaries have been successfully opened, which makes it possible to provide them money directly. Kathia remarked, “Just yesterday, 7,500 people were paid in one day.”

The head of the PDMA indicated that they had gotten 953 complaints so far and had taken care of all of them. He continued, “If anyone still has a problem with the survey, they can file an online complaint or call their assistant commissioner.”