Flash floods: ECC okays Rs5bn grant for NDMA

ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet Saturday approved a supplementary grant of Rs5 billion for National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to carry out rescue, and relief operations in flood-affected areas.

The approval was granted in a meeting presided over Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Miftah Ismail.

National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) presented the summary in the special meeting of ECC for allocation of funds to NDMA for flood affectees on the directions of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

The amount will be allocated from contingency provision of the Finance Division as block provision to NDMA, read the statement.

Minister of State for Finance and Revenue Dr. Aisha Ghous Pasha, Coordinator to the PM on Commerce and Industry Rana Ihsan Afzal, Coordinator to the PM on Economy Bial Azhar Kayani, Chairman NDMA, Federal Secretaries and other senior officers attended the meeting.

Flash floods kill over 500

Flash floods caused by abnormally heavy monsoon rains killed at least 549 people in Pakistan over the past month, with remote communities in the impoverished southwestern province of Balochistan among the hardest hit, a government agency said.

Government agencies and the army have set up aid and relief camps in flood-hit regions and were working to help relocate families and provide food and medicine.

Aside from the fatalities, the flooding had damaged more than 46,200 houses, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said on Friday.