1. Home
2. Top Stories

Administrative infra-structure, most areas still under flood waters

KT NEWS SERVICE. Dated: 9/22/2014 12:11:36 AM

People slam govt for not providing basic health, medical facilities across Kashmir

SRINAGAR, Sep 21: Even as the state government and its agencies engaged in relief and rehabilitation operations across the flood-ravaged are yet to come to grips over the administration, many areas are still submerged under water on Sunday and survivors slamming the authorities for not providing the basic health and medical facilities to people in different parts of Kashmir valley.
The situation in Jammu region is no different as most flood affected people are complaining of severe shortage of rations and essentials in their areas. Rationed have yet to reach the ration depots of the Public Distribution System (PDS) network run by the state government’s Consumer and Public Distribution (CAPD) department.
Much of administrative infrastructure continues to remain submerged in the waters partially or fully. These include the civil secretariat, Police Headquarters, CID office, chief minister’s private office, ministers' bungalows in Sonawar, Rajbagh and Jawahar Nagar, High Court, MLA’s Hostel, Circuit House, Tourist Reception Centre and J&K Bank.
No official of the state government is available to comment on the situation post floods in the two regions of Kashmir and Jammu.
The government buildings in Rajbagh and Jawahar Nagar will take few weeks to get functional and sources said that all records kept in ground floors have been lost. Desilting of all these buildings will take weeks and work at Police Headquarters has started.
Flood waters have receded from the city’s main business and commercial hub in Lal Chowk and its surrounding areas but it may take a long time for business activities in the Kashmir’s commercial hub return to normal. The flood has left behind a trail of destruction as goods covered in silt are lying unclaimed on the roads. Goods have been damaged beyond repair and several shopkeepers have become busy in clearing the mess created by the floods so that they can make a fresh start.
A major challenge for the government continues to be the fear of diseases like gastroenteritis, dysentry, typhoid, pneumonia, cholera, skin and eye infections. The government has claimed that it is well equipped to handle hygiene and sanitation in the city and around. Srinagar Municipality has said that it has pressed 10 fogging machines into service and demanded 50 more. However, glaring realities are being skirted.
In Srinagar, the inescapable water on many streets and the fact that many residents have stayed in their flooded homes to safeguard their belongings have magnified the risk of outbreaks of cholera, hepatitis A and typhoid, just as the valley has little ability to treat these deadly ailments.
In the aftermath of the floods, people are living in neighborhoods choked by putrid, infectious and in some spots impassable water. One reason is the poor disposal of carcasses of dead animals in the flood waters. In some areas, residents complained, these were being recklessly pushed into the Jhelum waters. However, there was no confirmation of the same. A report from Bemina said that over 300 odd dead cows are lying in the area unattended from the last ten days and the stink is becoming unbearable for the residents of the locality exposing them to threat of a health epidemic.
The government health infrastructure has taken a beating and two weeks after the floods, none of the major hospitals are functioning. Two stories of GB Pant children hospital have been damaged including diagnostic equipment lying on the ground floor. The total loss is estimated to be at Rs 8 crores. The hospital has been reduced to shell of what it had been with white sheets that had been tied together for trapped doctors and family members to escape still hung from the second-story window, a media report said. Equipment has been irretrievably damaged, and more than half of the staff members are still missing.
The Lal Ded hospital, the only maternity hospital continues to be inundated and has suffered major losses and is yet to be made functional. The lack of medical care has already taken a toll, particularly for pregnant women and newborns, who need specialised care.
Though health minister is hopeful that the hospitals would soon begin functioning, hospital administrators said it would take months before they were fully operational. Almost $25 million worth of equipment has been damaged, officials said.
The health care is being looked after by make shift hospitals set up by doctors, mostly on their own. Ahmed hospital, a private hospital in Nowgam, is the sole hospital that has been functioning throughout the last two weeks.
Telecommunication networking has only been partially restored. The BSNL exchange in Srinagar is also submerged. Connectivity has been restored at several places and internet services are also not fully restored. Around 450 telecommunication towers have been affected. Despite tall claims of the telecommunications of having restored services, people are finding it hard to connect to their people across the state.
Srinagar-Khanabal highway was damaged at Pampore. Srinagar-Baramulla highway traffic is disrupted due to damaged Bemina bridge. Drains and main sewers along major roads in Srinagar are also damaged. Railway tracks have been damaged at several places but partial rail services have been restored upto Baramulla. 12,553 roads are damaged and the damage is estimated at Rs 10,000 crores. Silt deposited on the roads due to the floods is further interfering in smooth movement of vehicular traffic and transportation of relief supplies.
Residents of one of the worst flood -affected villages in Pulwama district have complained about state government's failure to provide adequate healthcare facilities to them after the calamity hit the region.
The flood victims in Gulzarpura village, where more than 90 per cent houses have collapsed in the calamitous deluge, are facing risks of contracting water-borne diseases in the absence of proper healthcare facilities.
Riyaz Ahmed, a resident of the village, said the villagers were in dire need of medical aid and no help had reached them after 15 days when flood first hit this part of south Kashmir.
A team of healthcare officials including Chief medical officer of the area today visited the village.
"The officials came, wrote a few names and left. They did not even give a single painkiller to the flood-affected villagers here," Riyaz said.
The residents of the village complained about government's failure to send relief to the area.Riyaz Ahmed, a resident of the village, said the villagers were in dire need of medical aid and no help had reached them after 15 days when flood first hit this part of south Kashmir.
A team of healthcare officials including Chief medical officer of the area today visited the village.
"The officials came, wrote a few names and left. They did not even give a single painkiller to the flood-affected villagers here," Riyaz said.
The residents of the village complained about government's failure to send relief to the area.
"Whatever food grains we had stored for winters was washed away in the floods, we are lucky to be alive, but now the fear of starvation looms large on the entire village. Residents of nearby villages gave us some food grains, but now that too has finished," Ghulam Mohammed, another resident of Gulzarpura, said.
"The people here need medical help as many of them have already developed symptoms of various waterborne diseases," Ghulam said.
"We requested the CMO for some phenyl, and he gave us a few bottles that too were diluted and when we said that it was not sufficient, he replied that he did not have enough supplies," said Javid Ahmed another resident of the village.
"We have been left on our own, abandoned and orphaned by the government. People from nearby villages are pooling in resources to feed us. We can survive for sometime, but coming winters we will die of starvation as the floodwater has damaged our entire standing crop," said Fayaz Mir, a resident of the village.
After being apprised of the situation, an official of the state health department said, "We have instructed our officials to work day and night to provide medical care to the flood affected people."
The floods have caused a loss of Rs 1,000 crore to the apple crop in Kashmir, threatening a collapse of the horticulture industry in the state, says a report.
"Floods have washed out Kashmir apple's crop worth Rs 1,000 crore leaving a devastating impact on growers and the collateral damage for the consumers in rest of the country, who should be prepared to pay high prices in the coming festival and rest of the winter season, an Assocham report said after an assessment of the crop loss.
The worst-hit districts of Baramulla, Kupwara and Sopore are the largest producers of apple and extensive damage has been reported there, the report said.
"Horticultural production of the state contributes about 50 per cent of the Rs 2,000 crore agricultural production of the state involving 30 lakh people. Apple production accounts for 86 per cent by value of the state's horticultural output," it added.
"Apple is the mainstay of Kashmir's economy with a turnover of Rs 1,200 crore a year and its production in the state has reached about 1.6 million metric tonnes annually," the Assocham report pointed out.
The sector also employs nearly 30,00,000 people directly and indirectly, it said, adding apple accounts for a lion's share of total fruits produced and contributes about 10 percent to State Domestic Product (SDP).
Reports from Sumbal said that dozens of villages are in a bad shape. They need rations and few medical camps where sick can be treated. There are around 40 thousand people who have lost everything in these floods in Bandipore district alone. 87 camps have come up to help these people.