The ‘stagnant’ and ‘stinking’ waters in Srinagar may not be receding fast but a week after Srinagar was hit by a devastating flood, politicians surfaced under one roof in Hari Niwas Palace, temporary seat of power from where Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is running his office secretariat, to pass a unanimous resolution praising the efforts of the Government of India and its agencies, including Army, Air Force and NDRF.
While Omar Abdullah was chairing an all-party meeting in Srinagar, a six-member team of senior Cabinet Ministers came knocking at the door step of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi and requested him to declare the recent floods in the State as ‘national calamity’ and also ensure smooth supply of food grains and other essential items.
On ground zero while jawans of the Indian Army, IAF, NDRF supported by local volunteers carried on the herculean task, the ‘habitual’ trouble makers, for the fourth consecutive day, pelted stones.
IAF choppers were hovering over submerged areas and dropping ration supplies for the hungry and desperate civilians waiting for the crippled state machinery to become active when they came on the radar of the stone pelters.
A rotary wing plane of the air force suffered damage during stone pelting but it managed to return safely.
“It is unfortunate that the people who are trying to save them are being attacked, but we will not give up and will continue with our work till help does not reach to every single soul,” said Air Marshal SB Deo, Director General of Air Operations.
So far 43 people including 14 children have been found dead in Srinagar in the aftermath of floods. The dead bodies of two Army jawans who went missing during the rescue operations were fished out on Friday from Sambur area of Pulwama.
Rich tributes were paid to Naik Khem Chandra and Riflemen Meer Owais Hussain at Badami Bagh Cantonment on Saturday by the senior officers of the 15 core.
The overall death toll in Jammu region has crossed 200 mark and the death toll could go further up as authorities are still waiting for the water levels to come to normal level. So far 1.40 lakh civilians have been evacuated to safer places by the different rescue teams across J&K.
According to official sources as the flood water is receding in Central Kashmir, there are reports of water levels rising in Northern Kashmir.
The Jammu-Srinagar National Highway continue to remain blocked as the Army engineers and BRO personal are toiling hard to throw open the road.
According to official sources, “4-10 ft of flood water is still present in residential areas of Shivpura, Rajbagh, Jawahar Nagar, Wazirbagh, Gogjibagh, Karan Nagar, Shetrashahi, Bemina, Qamarwari and some other areas in the Srinagar city”.
The main business hubs of the city- lal Chowk, Residency Road, Maisuma, Hari Singh High Street and Karan Nagar are also under water. After a long struggle, finally mobile services have been restored everywhere in flood-hit Jammu & Kashmir, except in Poonch.
“The Central Government has worked a lot to restore communication in the Valley,” Union Telecom Minister Ravi Shanka Prasad told mediapersons in Delhi. “land lines are functional in many houses in the Valley,” Prasad said, adding that private companies have allowed free talk time to people in the State and many companies have provided free SIM cards also. “Except Poonch, mobile services are available everywhere somewhat,” he added.
Meanwhile, the delegation headed by J&K Finance Minister AR Rather also submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister putting forth several demands to help the State Government which was grappling with the worst deluge in over 100 years.”
The Prime Minister was very positive and assured us complete support to overcome the crisis,” senior State Minister Ali Mohammed Sagar, who was a part of the delegation, told reporters here.
In Srinagar, the all-party meeting attended by PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti, Congress leader Saifuddin Soz and BJP’s Jugal Kishore, CPI(M) MY Tarigami appealed to all individuals and organisations within and outside the State to come forward to help the people of the State in every possible way. According to sources Omar defended his administration, saying allegations that the leadership was missing were untrue.
“The political leadership is not missing. It was on the ground. My own officers were stranded but now they are back and controlling the situation on the ground,” Omar is learnt to have told the Opposition leaders.
After the meeting Omar said, “If NC and PDP can sit together and send out a joint message, if the BJP and Congress can sit together and send out a joint message, rest of the people too can join hands in this hour of crisis.”
He said several good suggestions were made by different parties. Main Opposition PDP presented a 10-point programme. Mehbooba said this is “no time to do politics” and first priority is rescue and rebuild.
Meanwhile, Mohd Iqbal Khandey, Chief Secretary J&K, on Saturday directed all the Government employees to report back to their duties to mitigate the problems of the people in this time of crisis, otherwise action under rules shall be initiated against the absentee employees.