The flood situation in Jammu & Kashmir was declared a “national level disaster” by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday even as the Army alone evacuated 15,000 people from flooded areas across the State.
As more personnel of the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF), Air Force and the Army were pressed into action, Mr. Modi asked other States to pitch in. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh made a separate appeal to NGOs to mobilise their resources to help deal with the situation.
Five additional NDRF columns and 70 boats were sent to the flood-affected areas this morning to join operations to rescue people stranded in inundated areas with water levels rising. At least three hospitals of Srinagar including the Government Children’s Hospital were flooded till the second storey; forcing the staff to move patients to the third floor. By late afternoon, a Radio Kashmir announcer told listeners that the station might have to shut down services because water had entered its installations.
The Air Force alone airlifted 850 people over the past two days; 449 were evacuated today. It also ferried medical personnel and supplies from Delhi, boats from Pune, Gandhinagar and Delhi, besides 10,000 blankets and 3,000 tents from Kanpur to Jammu and Srinagar. Besides, 26 IAF helicopters are operating in the flood-affected areas.
With communication lines disrupted, people took to social media to inform about rising water levels. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah used Twitter to appeal against panic with assurances that help was on its way. The boats flown in from Delhi were deployed by afternoon in Srinagar’s worst-affected areas of Indranagar, Shivpura and Rajbagh.
Meanwhile, after the aerial survey, Mr. Modi took stock of the situation and relief operations in meetings with the State administration in Jammu and Srinagar. Before leaving for J&K — where he announced Rs. 1,000 crore assistance in addition to Rs. 1,100 crore already made available to the State government through the State Disaster Relief Fund — he convened a crisis review meeting with the Cabinet Secretary and other senior officials in the national capital.
The Centre also announced Rs. 2 lakh to the next of kin of every person who died in the flooding. An official figure of the deaths was not available but by all accounts at least 160 people have died. Also, Rs. 50,000 would be given from the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund (PMRF) to those grievously injured.
With temperatures dipping, Rs. 5 crore has been set aside from PMRF to purchase one lakh blankets and the Centre will also airlift 50 tonnes of milk powder. Apart from ordering in solar lamps to help deal with the power situation and asking the Department of Telecommunications to restore telecom links, Army engineers have already begun repairing damaged bridges and arrangements are being made to airlift stranded tourists.
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