Mass evacuations in flood-hit Punjab hit 300,000 following alerts by India

SHER SHAH Pakistan AP Functionaries say nearly people have been evacuated in the past hours from flood-hit areas of Pakistan s Punjab province following the latest flood alerts by India personnel disclosed Wednesday The evacuations bring the total number of people displaced since last month to million Floodwaters have submerged dozens of villages in Punjab s Muzaffargarh district after earlier inundating Narowal and Sialkot both near the boundary with India Bureaucrats are also struggling to divert overflowing rivers onto farmlands to protect major cities as part of one of the largest rescue and relief operations in the history of Punjab which straddles eastern Pakistan and northwestern India Thousand of rescuers using boats are taking part in the relief and rescue operations while the military has also been deployed to movement people and animals from inundated villages noted Arfan Ali Kathia director-general of Punjab s Provincial Tragedy Management Authority A new flood alert was shared with Pakistan by neighboring India through diplomatic channels early Wednesday Kathia stated It was the second such alert in hours following heavy rains and water releases from dams in India Kathia reported the Ravi Chenab and Sutlej rivers are all in high flood following torrential rains and upstream discharges Rescuers are also using drones to find people stranded on rooftops in the flood-hit areas Kathia mentioned more than million people across villages in the province have been affected so far Damages are still being assessed and all those who lost homes and crops would be compensated by the Punjab regime he announced Landslides and flooding have killed at least people in India s Punjab state home to more than million people Tent villages are being set up and food and other essential items are being supplied to the flood-affected people he declared though various survivors complained about a lack of executive aid There are about people in the relief camps according to the National Calamity Management Authority It remains unclear where the rest are sheltering Noor Mohammad a -year-old farmer in Sher Shah village near Muzaffargarh district announced he hasn t received any help Frustrated over this days-long situation I sent my family members to stay with relatives in the nearby area he disclosed standing on higher ground overlooking his flooded village Malik Ramzan another displaced resident mentioned he chose to stay near his inundated home rather than enter a relief camp There are no liveable facilities in the camps he stated Food isn t delivered on time and we are treated like beggars he mentioned However Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif visited flood-hit areas in Muzaffargarh on Wednesday meeting with displaced families at relief camps Her visit came just hours after India issued the latest cross-border flood alert Last week s flooding mainly hit districts in Kasur Bahawalpur and Narowal where the deluge also submerged the shrine of Guru Nanak located near the Indian demarcation However personnel noted the shrine is being reopened for pilgrims after water receded and the building was cleaned and restored to the pre-flood situation Pakistan began mass evacuations last month after India disclosed water from overflowing dams into low-lying frontier regions The latest floods are the worst since when climate-induced flooding killed nearly people in Pakistan Associated Press writers Dogar in Lahore Pakistan and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this story Source