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| 2014 floods in Kashmir: What happened to the money? | | | Ishtiyaq Ahmad
Early Times Report
Srinagar, June 13: In Kashmir, few hours of rainfall is enough to pose an imminent threat of floods. This is because of lack of accountability on funds being spent over the years to increase the carrying capacity of water bodies in the Valley.
Post 2014 floods, the government had allotted Rs 46 crore dredging project to be executed by a Kolkata-based firm.
"Nothing has been done over these years, expect dredging at few spots," a source said.
The Government has framed a Fact-Finding Committee after Governor's office received complaints about alleged illegal allotment of dredging contracts in Kashmir.
The Fact-Finding Committee headed by Principal Secretary Housing and Urban Development Department has to probe irregularities in awarding dredging contracts and also look into the implementation of dredging contracts in River Jhelum and elsewhere by the Irrigation and Flood Control Department from 2010 to 2018.
"The committee has to probe on what Kolkata-based company was allotted dredging contract in the Jhelum. The company missed multiple deadlines to complete the assigned task post 2014 floods," the source said
In the aftermath of 2014 floods, the government made tall claims to prevent such disasters in the future. However, most of the government announcements have been confined to papers only.
It has been around after over four years that government hired a Spanish firm to conduct a study on the river Jhelum for preventing floods in Kashmir.
"The expert team of the company has started morphology study on Jehlum. It will conduct the study for a year," an official said.
When asked what led to the massive damage to the state during the floods, a senior official replied, "The capacity of retaining water in water bodies has reduced and is the main reason the even slight rainfall poses imminent threat of flood."
In July 2015, the first-ever disaster management plan was approved by the cabinet headed by the then chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
Meanwhile, the Divisional Commissioner Kashmir Baseer Ahmad Khan Thursday directed all Deputy Commissioners of the valley to conduct beat patrolling of Jhelum embankments, other rivers and streams on regular basis which are flowing in their respective districts.
He directed the officials to ensure that vulnerable spots are plugged immediately to avert any flood threat. For effective flood mitigation plan, Divisional Commissioner also directed to conduct Mock Drills of Flood management in every tehsil of Kashmir Division immediately
The Divisional Commissioner issued the directions while reviewing the preparedness and arrangements in view of flood situation.
The Divisional Commissioner directed Disaster Management department to open Divisional Flood Joint Control Room at Hari-Niwas immediately to monitor the daily progress of district control rooms. |
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