After a long wait of at least 45 days, the hopes of quake-hit residents of erstwhile Doda district in the Jammu region have once again come alive as Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to spend roughly three hours with them before visiting Budgam district in Srinagar on Saturday.
Rahul’s scheduled visit to the quake-hit areas was earlier postponed on May 28 in the wake of the Maoist attack in Chhatttisgarh.
According to official sources, Rahul will be reaching Udhampur Air Force Station via BSF plane along with Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and State Congress in-charge Mohan Prakash on Saturday morning. From there, he will board a chopper to visit quake-hit districts of the Doda region before flying to Budgam.
PCC chief Saifuddin Soz is also expected to join the party leaders during Rahul’s visit to the quake-hit areas. Since May 1, 2013 when the region was hit by a earthquake measuring 5.8 on the Richter Scale, the State and the Central Government have failed to announce any relief package for the worst-affected areas.
As per rough estimates, over 70,000 structures were damaged which included 1,139 fully damaged houses, 14,269 severely and 56,500 partially damaged houses during May 1 earthquake across three districts of Doda, Kistwar and Ramban.
Even though Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had sanctioned an amount of Rs 25 crore for immediate distribution among the needy under the State disaster relief fund but the affected residents in the area refused to accept the paltry assistance. They have been seeking financial assistance at par with victims of the leh cloudburst tragedy.
Ironically, the Central Government is yet to take a final call on providing financial assistance to the State Goverment in keeping with its projected demand of Goverment Rs 607 crore for rehabilitating quake-hit residents. According to official sources, the State Goverment is expected to push its case for getting early financial assistance during the visit of Rahul Gandhi to the quake-hit areas.
The district authorities in the region are already facing heat as residents are growing nervous with monsoon season approaching.
“How are we going to rebuild our houses in the absence of any financial aid from the State and Central Government,” ask residents while expressing their genuine concerns over the approaching monsoon season. “We are already playing with our lives by staying in partially damaged houses and braving regular aftershocks in the region,” complain local residents in the area.