Early Time Report
SRINAGAR, Sept 26: The Jammu and Kashmir government, which already failed in its first test of alerting people of the Valley about floods, has not setup any major relief camp in Srinagar which is worst-hit by the floods. But now it has announced six-months free ration and a meager Rs 75,000 compensation for the people whose houses were fully damaged.
Kashmir was hit by one of the worst-ever floods in a century in the first week of September. About 300 people died in the floods and thousands were rendered homeless while property worth billions was damaged. According to preliminary government estimates, over two lakh structures were damaged in the worst floods in the State. "Over 40,000 houses were totally damaged in the State," officials said.
Many localities in Srinagar including posh areas of Rajbagh, Jawahar Nagar, Shivpora, Indira Nagar besides Bemina are still inundated. The damage caused to houses in these areas will be known only after water recedes completely.
The government in an affidavit told High Court 137 relief camps catering to over one lakh people have been setup in the Valley.
However, these relief camps are not visible on the ground. The government has not set up any major relief camp for the flood-affected people in Srinagar, where many areas are still marooned.
The relief camps in worst-hit Srinagar have been set up by local volunteers, Mosque committees, Mohalla committees, Gurudwaras and religious groups and social groups. The moderate and hardline separatist groups led respectively by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Syed Ali Geelani have also set up relief camps in Srinagar.
Deputy Commissioner of Srinagar, Farooq Shah said the government has not set up relief camps but is providing ration and other material to these camps. "The government has decided to provide free-ration for six months to all of Srinagar district, which was the worst-hit in the floods. Besides, flood-affected areas of other districts would also get free ration for next six months," Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather said.
He said for the first month 50-kg ration will be given free of cost to each family while afterwards 35-kg rice will be provided free of cost to the people of flood-hit areas.Srinagar and other parts of the Valley are facing shortage of food grains.
However, Minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CAPD), Chaudhary Ramzan said government has distributed over 75,000 quintals of food grains free of cost among 12 to 13 lakh flood-hit people.
Notwithstanding the government assertions, people in most parts of Srinagar and other places of the Valley complain that free ration is not reaching most of the flood-hit populace.
"In order to ensure that free ration reaches to all, government is mulling distributing ration through mohalla or local mosque committees," a government official said.
The State government has also announced a compensation of Rs 75,000 for completely damaged houses and Rs 10,000 for partially damaged ones. The government has drawn flak for announcing a meager compensation of Rs 75,000 for completely damaged houses as houses here are built on higher costs keeping in view hostile weather conditions during the winters.
In view of the criticism, State government has urged Government of India (GoI) to increase the compensation for families, whose houses were damaged by the floods.
The State government has sought increase from Rs 75, 000 to 5 lakhs for the fully damaged houses and Rs 10,000 to Rs 3 lakh for partially damaged ones.
"The State government has only Rs 2,100 crores and accordingly we have decided to provide compensation of Rs 70,000 to the families, whose houses have been fully damaged. J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah during his recently meeting with PM Narendra Modi had sought relaxing norms of State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) for the State as houses in the State are constructed at a higher costs than other states of the country," an official said.
He said the State government has sought additional funds under the SDRF. "The demand for more funds will be submitted in the memorandum to be presented by J&K government after preparing a report about losses incurred by the State due to the floods," the official said.Rather said report about the losses suffered by the State in the floods would be completed within few days and later be submitted to the central government.Officials said if central government agrees to relax SDRF norms, the extent of compensation will be substantially increased. |
