Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Sept 22: Ever since September 8, after Srinagar and large parts of the Valley were engulfed by a devastating flood, the Governor has been personally reviewing the staff attendance, every day, to particularly know whether any staff member, or their families, needed to be rescued or provided any other kind of help.
As disclosed by a Raj Bhavan spokesman here today, barring 5 employees who could not be rescued till 12th September all others have been regularly attending duty, even on holidays, and providing the maximum possible help to the flood stricken people in the vicinity of the Raj Bhavan, particularly tourists and outsiders who had to be heli-evacuated to the airport. For the past many days, from September 8 onwards, all the senior officers of the Raj Bhavan Secretariat have been working till late hours being involved in mobilising food, water and other help for the several thousand persons who had been squatting on the drive-way to Raj Bhavan, waiting to be heli-evacuated. These people in distress included infants, women and aged persons.
The Governor has conveyed his personal appreciation, particularly to four Jammu region based officers who refused to go home even after they had been evacuated from their flooded lodgings in the city and taken to the airport for being airlifted to Jammu. Over a dozen Valley based staffers who were living in the nearby towns and villages also reported for duty even though their homes had been inundated and their families had faced severe losses.
Except one gardener, whose nearby village is still under water, there was cent percent attendance at the Raj Bhavan today. To express his high appreciation of the devotion and commitment of all the Raj Bhavan employees of all ranks, from Attendants upto the Principal Secretary, the Governor has decided to host a thanks giving get-together of all staff before the Darbar moves at end of October, by when the ground situation would have been fully stabilized.