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| CM asks parties to jointly reach out to Khundroo victims | | Asks legislators to donate month’s salary; gives details of relief, rehabilitation measures | |
Srinagar, August 23- Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today asked political parties across board to join hands in meeting the challenge thrown up by the Khundroo incident even as he appealed legislators and government employees to contribute towards relief and rehabilitation of victims of the tragedy.
Azad was replying discussion on Khundroo ammunition depot blast in the Legislative Assembly.
The Chief Minister said that the spirit of 2005 needs to be revived when government, opposition , NGOs and public at large joined hands and pooled efforts to help out the tragedy hit people of the state. He said the unfortunate incident that happened at Khundroo on August 11 also called for a similar response where everybody should rise above party considerations and reach out to the affected families. He suggested that legislators should donate one month’s salary and government employees a day’s pay for the victims.
Describing the incident as a major tragedy, the Chief Minister said that permanent rehabilitation of people in the affected villages was a big task and government would leave no stone unturned in providing succor to them. He said that wiser by the 2005 experience, the government took up immediate rescue and relief measures to minimize the impact of the incident. He said he had talked with Prime Minister, Defence Minister and the Army Chief about the need to compensate the losses and clear residential houses, orchards and maize and paddy fields of live ammunition as it posed danger to human life. He said his concern was shared by Dr. Manmohan Singh as well as by the Defence Minister and Army Chief who assured him of and actually undertook immediate steps to face the situation head on.
The Chief Minister, without naming anybody, said that words had been attributed to him suggesting that he wanted civilian population shifted from nearby ammunition depots. He said when he replied a similar discussion in the Legislative Council day before yesterday he did not say anything to suggest this. He said during his meeting with the Prime Minister on August 18, he suggested to him that in future arms depots should be set up away from population. He displayed a bunch of newspaper clippings of August 19 to show that the media had also reported him asking the Prime Minister to consider setting up of ammunition depots away from habitations. He regretted that despite this there were some people who were feeding wrong information to public. He said that the issue being sensitive one the leaders of political parties should not rake it up like this. “We have responsible and seasoned leaders in all political parties who could place it before the Prime Minister and request that hazardous ordnance depots be located at a safe distance from population”, he added.
The Chief Minister said that the government was alive to the fallout of the incident and consequent sufferings of the local people and did not waste even a minute to reach the spot. He gave details of the measures taken by the administration from the time of occurrence and dismissed opposition’s charge that it did not reach out to the victims of the tragedy. He said the incident occurred at 9 in the morning and the district administration came to know about it at 9.20 A. M. He said within 35 minutes fire brigades from Achhabal and Shangus reached the spot while in another 15 minutes the District Development Commissioner and SSP had arrived. He said the local MLA and Minister of State for Health, Peer Muhammad Hussain who was in Srinagar reached the site at 10.45 A. M. He said between 11 A. M. and 11. 30 A. M., fire brigades from adjacent districts of Kulgam and Pulwama and tehsil Bijbehara reached the spot. The Chief Minister said that for anybody it was humanly impossible to reach the spot quicker than this.
Azad recalled that he was in Delhi on the day of the incident and immediately sent by helicopter senior ministers, Peerzada Muhammad Sayeed and Abdul Aziz Zargar along with Divisional Commissioner and IGP to the site who monitored the situation and relief and rescue operation. He said on the following day he flew in from Delhi in the morning and straightaway left for aerial survey of the affected villages as it was not possible to move in by road. He said he had a detailed meeting with senior army, civil and police officers where it was decided to set up relief camps and provide free shelter and food to the people evacuated from the affected villages. He said people through announcements on loudspeakers and print and electronic media were asked to refrain from moving back to their houses as live ammunition flown into the area posed danger to human life. He said 2000 army personnel were deployed for the protection of property left behind by the evacuated people in the affected villages. He said not a single case of theft was reported due to this timely step taken by the government in tandem with the army.
Giving details of relief measures, the Chief Minister said that 6 relief camps were immediately set up for the evacuated people where today about 6500 people are lodged and provided food and shelter. Medical facilities, tents, blankets and drinking water have been provided in ample measure. He said the army has cleared 11 of the 13 villages of live ammunition while the remaining two would be cleared by Sunday. He said survey of villages to assess damages caused to residential houses has been started by seven teams. Each team comprises 7 to 8 officials including Naib Tehsildar, Girdawar, Patwari, VLW and a police official. The survey process would be videographed and supervised by an Assistant Commissioner, Revenue. He said the assessment would be completed by the first week of September and forwarded to the Government of India by 15th September for release of compensation money. He said preliminary reports suggest that 20 percent houses in the affected villages had been fully damaged while another 40 percent were partially damaged and could be repaired. He said clearance of orchards and paddy and maize fields had also been started and once these were cleared assessment of loss to crop and fruit would be taken up and a case for compensation sent to the centre.
The Chief Minister alluded to the meeting he had yesterday with the joint central team of Defence and Home ministries officials and said that they were very receptive and assured that the Centre would do whatever was required to address the sufferings of the affected people. He thanked Prime Minister, Defence Minister, Army Chief and other senior officers of the army for the support and cooperation extended to the state government in meeting the challenge. He also praised district administration for its swift response to the incident and reaching out to the victims in a record time.
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