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| Erstwhile PDP led regime failed to put flood management mechanism in place | | ‘Can't prevent destruction if 2014 like situation recurs' | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
Srinagar, Sept 14: Ones who were tasked to prevent Jammu and Kashmir from getting marooned in catastrophic floods like 2014 have finally admitted that no such mechanism has been put in place to prevent the destruction of private and public property if floods occur again.
Exposing the ill preparedness of the PDP led dispensation making Jammu and Kashmir flood-proof; the government has admitted that no concrete measures were taken in the past to prevent the deluge.
The concerned officials in a recent media interaction said that the second phase of the dredging was not started yet. Asked whether the department is ready to prevent the 2014 like deluge in future, the officials said the department is ready to tackle middle level deluge, but is not yet capable to tackle the 2014 like situation. "We are trying to reach there in stages. At present, the department is not ready to accommodate that level of flood. But, we are gradually moving towards that," he said. "It will take more time to reach the stage where we can accommodate 2014 like flood," reports quoted officials as having said.
As per the report, in the floods of September 2014, Srinagar and adjoining districts were the most affected areas. The heavy rainfall resulted in huge water discharge in the Jhelum river exceeding the carrying capacity of the river and its flood channels. This combined with blocked flood channels and inadequate flood control measures triggered floods with devastating effect.
The flood spill channels with the original carrying capacity of 17,000 cusecs of water had been reduced to a carrying capacity of 4,000 cusecs of water due to accumulation of sediment load from various nallahs which merge with the channel at various points. To address this issue, a scheme for improvement to flood spill channel by way of construction of the central channel of the small cross-section was taken up in the year 2008-09 by the Irrigation and Flood Control (I&FC) Department at an estimated cost of Rs 14.93 crore. Subsequently, this was subsumed in the year 2010-11 under the 'Flood Threat to River Jhelum Scheme' at an estimated cost of Rs 50.68 crore.
Similarly, reveal the official documents, against 11,947 metres and 11,78,331 cubic metres of flood spill channel required to be treated and excavated respectively as per the DPR of the scheme, only 8,087 metres (68 per cent) and 5,05,995.13 cubic metres (43 per cent) were treated and excavated respectively.
Documents reveal that Rs 9.20 crore was utilized on the construction of structures at Wullar lake and miscellaneous items which were not approved in the DPR. No Objection Certificate (NOC) was required to be obtained from wetland authorities for the execution of construction works in wetland areas falling under the area of implementation of the scheme. The requisite NOC was not obtained prior to start of the work. Consequently, construction of drainage channel covering 1,641 metres, allotted in July 2011 to a contractor for an amount of Rs 1.44 crore could not be completed due to objections raised against the construction by the wetland authorities. |
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