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| Out of 75,000 kgs of milk mere 7k distributed among flood victims | | The tale of JK's milk thieves | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Dec 18: The malpractices of the then government in Jammu and Kashmir during the catastrophic floods of 2014 in Valley are coming to the fore with investigations revealing that even the milk meant for the flood victims was stolen by the officials in the erstwhile state.
As per the official documents in possession of the Early Times, Divisional Commissioner Kashmir sanctioned Rs. 2.51 crore out of SDRF for purchase of 75,000 kgs of whole milk and 5,000 kgs of skimmed milk from M/s Mother Dairy and Vegetables Private Limited, New Delhi through the J&K Milk Producer Co-operative Limited, Milk Plant, Srinagar, for distribution amongst the flood affected people. The Co-operative received the full quantity of whole milk and skimmed milk in September 2014. However, only 7,000 kgs of whole milk was distributed amongst the affected people. While 2,600 kgs of milk was damaged, the balance valued at Rs. 1.99 crore was either used by the Cooperative as part of its business or was not traceable.
Documents reveal that out of the 53,298 bags (26,500 quintals) of rice received from Chhattisgarh Government, 5,375 bags (2,675 quintals) were damaged at waterlogged open space at Udhampur Railway Station due to delay in lifting. A further 26,920 bags (13,396 quintals) which were transported to Kashmir for distribution was also damaged/became sub-standard (June 2015) due to delay in distribution by the Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CAPD) Department. This resulted in Rs. 42.74 lakh spent on transportation of the rice being rendered infructuous.
It has been further observed that relief and evacuation were not provided to the victims of floods in a timely and effective manner due to the absence of adequate damage and need assessment, lack of effective coordination and monitoring by any nodal agency for procurement, transportation and distribution of relief materials, diversion of funds and irregular spending or spending on ineligible items in contravention of SDRF's guidelines.
Inadequate and inaccurate damage assessment coupled with inefficient management of projects and diversion of funds also hampered restoration and re-building of public utilities and infrastructure damaged by the floods.
As required under the Standard Operating Procedures for restoration of public utilities and infrastructure, sanction for expenditure from SDRF above Rs. 30 lakh was to be obtained from the SEC, up to Rs. 30 lakh from Financial Commissioner, Revenue, up to Rs. 20 lakh from Divisional Commissioners and up to Rs. 10 lakh from Deputy Commissioners. In contravention of these instructions, works implementing agencies did not obtain sanction from any of the aforesaid competent authorities for any of the restoration works.
Documents reveal further over the issue that the assessment of damages was completed while need assessment had not been conducted in any of the six districts resulting in partial or inaccurate damage assessment. The initial and subsequent assessments varied from 11 per cent to 137 per cent leading to delays in arranging materials and procurement of supplies that adversely impacted provision of timely assistance to the affected persons. |
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