Whereabouts of 200 not known, families scouring for info
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Sept 10: More than a week after massive flash floods gripped various parts of Kashmir valley particularly the summer capital, 543 inhabitants of Doda and Kishtwar districts including 95 students continue to remain trapped in different areas. The worrisome aspect of the situation is that whereabouts of 200 of them are still not known either to the administration of these districts or to their family members.
Ever since the flooding of Valley, the office of Deputy Commissioner Kishtwar has received information about 343 inhabitants of the district having been trapped in different parts of Valley. Among these persons, 45 are the students, who had gone to take part in the counseling for the Prime Minister Special Scholarship Scheme.
Similarly, the Deputy Commissioner Doda’s office has received information about 200 inhabitants of the district remaining trapped in Valley due to floods. Among these persons are 40 students seeking benefit of PM’s Special Scholarship Scheme and 42 ailing persons. Shockingly, neither the Doda district administration nor their family members have any information about whereabouts of all these 200 persons.
In the absence of any direct communication link with the civil and police heads of the districts in Kashmir valley, the Deputy Commissioners of Doda and Kishtwar have forwarded information about these 543 persons to Police Control Room and Divisional Commissioner Jammu for sharing of the same with the civil and police authorities in Valley through any possible means of communication.
Though some inhabitants of Kishtwar district trapped in Valley including some students have, somehow, managed to talk to their family members to convey their safety, no contact could be established with rest of the persons particularly 200 belonging to Doda district.
The family members of such persons have repeatedly been approaching the offices of the Deputy Commissioners to ascertain latest situation as well as any information about those trapped in Valley. More worrisome are the families of students and the ailing persons.
“We have no option but to watch the situation with crossed fingers in the absence of communication link”, some senior officers of the civil administration in these districts said on the condition of anonymity, adding “40 persons from Doda had gone to the Valley for medical check-up while as two others for treatment and the present location of these persons is not known”.
Those people, who have managed to briefly interact with their families in Kishtwar from the relief camps established in Valley, explained the horrendous situation they had gone through due to flooding of the areas they were camping in.
Some of these people, according to their families, had to remain without food and water for quite long time before being noticed and rescued by the Army and other agencies engaged in saving lives of the people from flood-ravaged areas. According to these persons, civil administration is completely missing in Srinagar as if the administration has completely surrendered and left the situation to be handled by the Army and other agencies engaged in the rescue and relief operations.
Even those who managed to come out of the flooded areas and reached the safe areas failed to return to their native districts because of snapping of road link. “Several students of Kishtwar and those accompanying them are camping near Raj Bhawan waiting for being airlifted while as many others are stationed at Qazigund waiting for the vehicles to reach Kishtwar via Simthantop”, reports said.
Rajesh Parihar, a resident of Kishtwar said, “My son Shivam Parihar had gone to appear in the screening test for the Prime Minister’s Scholarship Scheme and he along with my two brothers-in-law had miraculous escape”.
“During the initial two consecutive days they had to change the destinations in order to save themselves from the floods but after the situation worsened they managed to persuade a boat operator to shift them to safer location”, he said, adding “presently they are camping near Raj Bhawan waiting for being airlifted to Jammu or Udhampur”.
Rajesh, who heaved a sigh of relief after speaking to his son albeit briefly, said, “in the absence of civil administration in Valley rescued people are facing difficulties even in getting airlifted”.
Several inhabitants of Doda and Kishtwar, who have been desperately scouring for information about their family members trapped in flood-ravaged Valley conveyed to EXCELSIOR their resentment about civil administration’s virtual surrender in Valley.
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