Rustam
JAMMU, Sept 22: The September floods were perhaps the first in history, in the living memory of Jammu & Kashmir. These flash floods, coupled with landslides on an unprecedented scale in both the regions of the state, threw the entire life out of gear and disrupted all socio-economic and political activities. The suffering of the people and infrastructure is just unimaginable. It was no wonder then that the highly moved Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who visited the flood-ravaged state to have on the spot assessment, described the crisis as a national-level disaster and made a passionate appeal to all to donate as much as they could to the relief fund so that some of the hardships of the marooned people could be mitigated at this hour of tragedy.
According to one estimate, more than 300 people are dead and more than $2bn in destruction have been lost. The death toll in Jammu alone is, according to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, more than 200. And as per Assocham, the flood fury has caused a minimum loss of Rs 5,400-5,700 crore to the vital tourism sector alone. But it is just a preliminary estimate. The actual magnitude of the total infrastructure destruction, including communication network, hospitals, schools, power producing plants, small industrial units, may not be known for some more time.
That the loss was colossal could be seen from the fact that over 1000 villages along the various rivers, including Tawi in Jammu and Jhelum in Kashmir, were badly affected by the flash floods. Many of them remained submerged for almost 10 days. Experts say most of the houses, shops and other buildings in the marooned villages would collapse when weather conditions will turn absolutely normal. The floods have weakened the foundations of the immovable properties to that extent. The numbers of houses affected by the floods is several thousands, more than 12,000 in Jammu region alone. Many buildings have started collapsing.
Over three lakh persons have been displaced both in Jammu province and the Valley. No less than three million people have suffered one way or the other. More than 4000 roads have suffered an extensive damage. In Jammu province alone, according to Roads and Building Minister Abdul Majid Wani, out of 3,517 roads having length of 9,851 kms, about 2,553 roads have been damaged due to heavy rain and flash. As for Kashmir, nearly 1500 roads have been damaged, some of them very badly.
More than 250 bridges, big and small, have been destroyed in both the provinces. More than 100 bridges were completely washed away. The destruction of these vital links between towns and villages adversely impacted the road connectivity and hampered the relief, rescue and rehabilitation work undertaken by Army, Air Force, Navy, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and voluntary organizations surmounting all odds, including threat to their precious lives. Standing crops both in Jammu province and Kashmir region have also been completely destroyed, thus adding to the woes of the already rather poor small and marginal farmers. Several thousands of people have lost all of their belongings, some of them very costly, and they belong to both the provinces.
The fact of the matter is that all the 10 districts of Jammu province - Kathua, Samba, Jammu, Udhampur, Reasi, Doda, Kishtwar, Ramban, Poonch and Rajouri - and six out of 10 districts in Kashmir - Srinagar, Kulgam, Anantnag, Budgam, Pulwama and Shopian - have suffered extensive damage. It would take time to rehabilitate these districts. It would also require billions of rupees for rehabilitation. Believe me, there are towns and villages in Kashmir and Jammu, which needed to be rebuilt afresh. Such is the magnitude of the damage caused by both the natural and man made calamity or disaster. Man made because the people played havoc with the nature after secessionist violence gripped parts of the Valley in the late 1980s.
Indeed, the massive calamity that struck Jammu & Kashmir is a natural disaster, but it came about because of the callousness of State authorities who allowed widespread deforestation and illegal constructions that blocked drains. It needs to be underlined that the worst-affected people were those who had raised structures on the banks of the various rivers through illegal means on encroached Government lands in connivance with corrupt elements in the Revenue and Flood Control and Irrigation Departments and Municipal Corporations and municipal committees.
As said, more than 300 people are dead. The exact number of dead and the people who are still missing in different parts of Jammu & Kashmir is still not known, as the relief and rescue operations are going on unabated even today, especially in the Valley proper, bulk of which was submerged. The situation in Jammu province is no different, but it is the Valley which is being preferred. The floods and landslides not only took away hundreds of precious lives, but also caused damage to the invaluable livestock on an unprecedented scale. All this has further harmed the economic life of the agrarian community and nomads.
The worst part of the whole tragedy was the damage the flood fury caused to the state's health sector, as most of the important healthcare centres and major hospitals also remained under deep water for days together. It is basically the army which is providing medical facilities to the affected people, including children. As far as Jammu & Kashmir Government is concerned, it faces the biggest-eve challenge to rebuild the state's healthcare sector.
It is hoped that the concerned authorities would also take cognizance of the woes of the flood-affected people of Jammu province and not discriminate between the two regions. There is a complaint in Jammu that the authorities are ignoring Jammu. |
