Oxfam and FRC complain about substandard tents
Oxfam and the Federal Relief Commission (FRC) have complained about the poor quality of tents made available in the earthquake-hit areas in Azad Kashmir and the NWFP.
At a meeting of the sub-committee of the Senate Standing Committee on Textile and Industry on Wednesday, an Oxfam representative told the participants that 90 percent of the tents were unable to withstand the harsh weather and were not winterised. He said that more than 50 percent of the tents were not even waterproof.
These assertions were substantiated by an FRC letter written to the Punjab government on November 20. “It is noted that quality of tents is not up to the mark because only visual inspection of five percent tents is being allowed. Rejected tents are also being transported. This all is happening at the cost of the lives of the displaced people,” read the letter. The committee observed that tents were not adequately treated and rejected the excuse made by the tent manufactures’ association that enough canvas was not available.
An FRC representative told the committee that the Punjab government had been tasked to procure 300,000 poly ethylene cover sheets of 200 grammes density worth Rs 3.5 million to make the tents waterproof. The government had spent Rs 1.9 billion to buy the tents.
Senator Abdullah criticised the government, saying that it should have procured the sheets with the tents. He submitted 17 questions and sought their itemised replies from the stakeholders in the next meeting tomorrow. The sub-committee will finalise its findings and recommendations tomorrow to be submitted to the full committee which is likely to meet on December 21.
The meeting of the sub-committee was held at the Parliament House under the chairpersonship of Senator Pari Gul Agha.
Source: Daily Times
Technorati Tags: Oxfam