Punjab may shut schools for one week in flood-affected districts

LAHORE: The Punjab government has decided to appoint additional administrative officers in flood-affected districts.

The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by the Chief Secretary of Punjab, Zahid Zaman, at the PDMA committee room.

The meeting also reviewed the situation in affected areas and considered closing educational institutions for one week as part of precautionary measures.

Punjab Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat said that the educational institutions in the affected areas are working as shelter places for the affected people in times of the devastating floods.

The worst floods in Punjab after 39 years have turned villages, cities, and streets into rivers. Shelter, roads have been destroyed in some places.

People are forced to take shelter on the roofs of submerged houses, while in others, citizens trapped in floodwaters are moving to safer places with their savings.

Villages in many areas of Punjab, including Wazirabad, Kasur, Narowal, Hafizabad, Kamalia, Mandi Bahauddin, Bahawalnagar, Sialkot, Sargodha, Vehari, and Pakpattan, have been surrounded by floods.

Many areas have lost land connectivity, while temporary dams have broken in many places.

Earlier, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz conducted an aerial inspection of the flood-affected areas and reviewed the relief operations.

According to rescue officials, relief operations are underway in the affected areas by local volunteers, the Pakistan Army, and the Pakistan Rangers.