QUETTA, Feb 19: The recent spell of rain, snowfall and flash floods hit fifteen districts of Balochistan particularly hard, claiming 81 lives and inflicting heavy economic losses on the people living there.

Balochistan Revenue Minister Asim Kurd said this while speaking at a press conference here on Saturday. He said that relief work was in full swing in those areas and an exercise to assess losses at the district level had been started. The government would provide help to the flood-stricken people and compensate them for their losses.

He said the government was using all available resources to help the rain victims. He lauded the Army, Navy, the Coast Guards and the Frontier Crops for making all-out efforts to mitigate the suffering of the people.

Responding to a question about the death toll, the provincial revenue minister said that so for 81 deaths had been confirmed in different areas battered by flash floods and snowfall.

They included 31 passengers of a bus that had been swept away in Turbat's flash floods; 11 in Kohlu, one in Khuzdar, five in Killa Abdullah, two in Kalat, four in Panjgur, one in Lasbela, four in Quetta, 14 in Pishin, one in Awaran and seven in Zhob.

He announced that the provincial government will pay Rs1 lakh to heirs of each victim of floods. Likewise, the president of Pakistan had also announced to give an equal sum to them.

He said the provincial government had released Rs7.5 million to nine districts through their respective DCOs. Some other districts had also demanded relief funds which would be provided to them on Monday.

He said the federal government had asked the provincial government to evaluate the total losses caused by the natural calamity in the province and furnish a report so that it could release necessary fund for the rehabilitation work.

The minister said that all executive district officers had been directed to collect necessary information for onward submission to the federal government. Replying to a question about the damage caused to the Shadi Kuar dam, the minister said the government would hold an inquiry into its substandard construction. He added that the dam would be reconstructed.

He said the UN had provided medicines worth Rs1.2 million while the provincial government will arrange drugs worth Rs30 million for the treatment of flood-hit people. The media consultant to the chief minister, Raziq Bugti, told newsmen that Iran and Muscat had committed to provide relief to the flood victims.

He praised the two governments as well as NGOs and UN bodies for providing relief supplies to the Balochistan government for distribution among the needy. A C-130 plane carrying 40 tons of relief items, including tents and blankets, has arrived from Muscat while two more planes are likely to reach by Sunday, he added.