With all communication lines to Kashmir Valley cut off due to the floods, the Army has adopted the social media to reach out to people stranded in the region by using satellite communication to its local units.
While operations on the ground are on round-the-clock, the Army is exploiting information technology tools including Face-book and Whats-App. In the last three days, it managed to handle more than 7,000 distress messages by redirecting them to the Northern Command Headquarters, Udhampur.
Using satellite communication systems, the Com-mand is asking its local formations to look out for stranded people mentioned in the messages and bring them out safely.
In one such effort, the local Army column rescued Pahalgam MlA after receiving his message on Facebook, Additional Director General Public Information Major General Shokin Chauhan said here on Monday.
His unit, based in Delhi, hit upon this idea of using the social media after some officers deployed there starting getting distress messages from all over the country. The unit is now working 24X7 to reach out to as many affected people as possible and will also pass on these messages to the helpline set up here by the Army, Chauhan said.
Elaborating upon the enormity of the disaster, he said the communication network collapsed after the power lines and mobile system went under water due to floods and the Army formations in Srinagar were also affected.
Efforts were now on to restore the telecom system by airlifting communication sets to Srinagar, Chauhan said, adding the Army restored communication lines of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah besides Chief Secretary and Director General of Police.
As regards the ongoing relief and rescue mission named Operation Megh Rahat, he said the situation in Jammu region has somewhat stabilised and the Army has shifted its focus to Srinagar.
Hoping that things will return to normal after seven to eight days, Chauhan said more than 2,000 people were rescued from the worst-affected localities of Rajbagh, Jawahar Nagar, Shivpura and Pantha and Tent Pura on Sunday night.
He also said unlike Uttarakhand, where helicopters were able to airlift stranded people from flat rooftops of their homes during the floods last year, the Army has to go into every home in Srinagar to bring out trapped people as the rooftops there are slanted to ward off snow.
Army Chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag, who visited the flood affected areas on Sunday, said on Monday that soldiers will not return to the barracks till the last person is rescued. At present more than 130 Army columns (one column has 100 soldiers) are deployed in Srinagar for rescue efforts.