Srinagar faces Sept-2014 flood threat, Govt fails to take measures

Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, June 26: Srinagar city was an hour’s rain away from September-2014 like flood situation as Government is ill prepared to deal with floods. The rising water levels of river Jhelum last night gave sleepless nights to the people living along its banks in Srinagar.
The rising waters of river Jhelum last night created panic among residents living along the Jhelum river banks in areas like Lasjan, Mehjoor Nagar, Rajbagh, Jawahar Nagar, Gogjibagh, Tuslibagh, Bemina and Lal Chowk.
Majority of the residents in these areas were awake with large number of them on the Jhelum banks to watch the rising waters of the river. The water level at midnight was 21.65 feet, over 2.65 feet above danger level. However, water started receding early in the morning bringing some respite to the people living in the vulnerable areas.
At Ram Munshi Bagh in the city, Jhelum was flowing at 20.65 ft this evening against the peak of 21.65-ft in the wee hours today. In Sangam water level receed from 27.50 ft to 21.65 ft last night. In Srinagar the river is still flowing above danger mark.
The water level in the Jhelum and its tributaries rose sharply following heavy rainfall on Wednesday, which had prompted authorities to issue a flood alert for South and Central Kashmir.
Several areas in Anantnag district, including Nai Basti, Takia Behrampora, Shamsipora and Hassanpora, were inundated by the overflowing Jhelum and its tributaries.
Some areas of Kulgam district, including Qoimoh, Mir Bazar, Asthal and Devsar, were affected by the flooding of the Vaishav stream.
Several bridges and roads have been washed away in south Kashmir with the Tral area in Pulwama district bearing the brunt of flash floods. Minor breaches have been reported in embankments of water bodies at some places but these have been plugged by officials of the Flood Control Department.
A high level meeting of the officials was held in Srinagar today to discuss the flood situation and restoration works. The meeting was told that the boatmen refused to give their boats for rescue operations to be carried out in parts of South Kashmir as their last year’s payments were not cleared.
The meeting was informed that the contractors were not ready to carry restoration of diversions that were washed away in South Kashmir as the last year’s flood liabilities are still pending.  The contractors are refusing to restore communication links that have been snapped yesterday due to flash floods.
There is huge liability of around Rs 1000 crore flood restoration including crop losses pending, posing a major problem for the Government to deal with future floods in Kashmir. The Irrigation and Flood Control (I&FC) department has flood restoration liability of around Rs 100 crore.
Contractors in Srinagar division of I&FC said that they won’t carry any restoration work as the Government has not cleared their liabilities. “Government owes us Rs 30 Crore for flood restoration works which we carried out last year in Srinagar to plug the breaches and strengthen the banks of river Jhelum and other rivulets”, said a contractor.
“My house was under 18 feet water but we were approached by the department for restoration work which we did. So far there is no approval for such works. How can we carry out future works”, said a contractor.

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