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| No regional discrimination: Sun shines equally at Jammu, Srinagar | | | Early Times Reporter
Jammu | Feb 9
After a weeklong of mayhem and disaster, the sun finally shined back. Interestingly, unlike our political establishment, the sun did not do any regional discrimination –for a while it was quite a sunny afternoon both in Srinagar and Jammu as also in many other parts of the region.
Though the chill still maintains but the temperature too slightly improved today. "We had respite after seven days of snowfall today (Saturday) as the clouds parted, bringing on the sun in Kashmir", said T.K. Jotshi, assistant director with the weather department.
'Fair weather conditions are going to continue for at least three days. Because of clear night skies, the minimum temperature, which had risen because of the cloud cover, has again started falling. It was minus three degrees Celsius in Srinagar today,' said Jotshi.
Jotshi also warned of more snow avalanches in the higher reaches of the valley.
Meanwhile, the death toll in avalanches and roof collapses across the state has risen to 19. The civil administration has sought the assistance of the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force in relief and rescue operations.
The army and air force helicopters have started carrying relief and rescue sorties in the affected areas. 700 passengers stranded at Jammu were today airlifted to Srinagar by the airforce choppers.
Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad undertook an extensive tour of severally affected snow hit districts of Doda and Kishtwar to personally assess the situation and instill confidence among people living under extreme hostile weather conditions for the past week.
Accompanied by Director General of Police, Kuldeep Khoda and Principal Secretary to CM, Anil Goswami, the Chief Minister taking the advantage of the first sign of improvement in weather in many days, flew to Bhadarwah and interacted with people there to have the first hand feedback on the situation. The Bhadarwah town has about 5 ft snow while the upper reaches had about 12 ft snowfall. The power supply in the town has been restored while snow clearance from roads was being taken up on priority.
The Chief Minister also flew to Sherkhi village where the snow has accumulated up to 17 ft. He also made an aerial survey of adjoining villages of Thanala and Bhejja which, like rest of the habitations in the upper reaches, are totally cut off.
Azad also visited Kishtwar and besides meeting with local people, had a meeting with civil, army, police and security forces officers about the situation and the measures being taken to provide relief to the people.
Later, the Chief Minister visited Doda and took a similar meeting there. Before his return to Jammu, he also visited Dessa to ascertain the problems being faced by the local people. Since the two districts have had unprecedented snowfall this time, disrupting communication and blocking roads, it was not possible for the Chief Minister to move into the interiors of the towns and villages he visited today. |
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