RNA – In an interview with Rasa News Agency, Hujjat al-Islam Nasrollah Pejmanfar, the representative of the people of Mashhad in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, stressed the urgent need for officials to deal with natural disasters in a timely manner and said, “The officials must take measures that minimize damage to the people during natural disasters.”
The member of the Islamic Consultative Commission on Cultural Affairs added, “Unfortunately, one of the problems in the crisis management in the country is that there is no mechanism to decisively deal with those who are negligent in crisis management and respond to them.”
He stated, “Today, we see that some departments, whose task was to prevent potential damage from natural disasters, but they didn’t perform any of their duties. For example, some departments have the task to dredge the rivers but they haven’t fulfilled this duty. Today, we see that a flood has come and the rivers have overflowed and have caused a lot of damage.”
Hujjat al-Islam Pejmanfar expressed his satisfaction and hope that the judiciary would be deal with the violators of the Crisis Management Administration in a decisive manner and said, “Today, the will of the new judiciary has been formed to deal with the offenders. Therefore, judicial officials must take this approach seriously and deal seriously with those who fail to perform their duties.”
He expressed his regret and sympathy with the victims of the flood incident in Shiraz and in Fars province and other provinces of the country and added, “The judiciary must seriously enter the issue of dredging the river [Rudkhaneh-ye Khoshk] in a serious manner. If different departments, such as the Shiraz municipality and other departments, have failed and have been negligent, they must be dealt with in a serious manner.”
Hujjat al-Islam Pejmanfar emphasized that the failure of the executive officials in managing the crisis must not be easily overlooked and also stressed upon the necessity for the officials who failed to fulfill their duties to be held accountable and said, “The executive officials of the country must take into account the climatic conditions of the country and have a plan for each region so that we suffer the least amount of damage during natural disasters.”
At least 57 people have been killed in the past two weeks in floods and extreme weather conditions in various Iranian provinces, from north to south, following the heaviest downpours in the country in at least a decade.
Iran has announced a state of emergency in several provinces threatened by flooding and forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes in the affected provinces, where dozens of villages have been evacuated already.
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