Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Sept 23: President, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Mehbooba Mufti called for immediate disbursement of relief in order to allow flood affected people to reconstruct and repair their houses before the onset of winters.
After visiting several flood affected areas of Anantnag and Bijbehara, Mehbooba said that Government does not seems to have realized the magnitude of the damages caused due to the recent natural calamity as such relief and rehabilitation work was being carried out casually.
“There is an urgent need for disbursement of relief for the reconstruction of houses so that the people could have at least something to live in before the onset of winter”, she said, adding that State Government has provided tented accommodation only to limited affected families, while others have been left at the mercy of God.
She said that in case the people were not provided with the immediate relief to reconstruct and repair their houses they will have to spent harsh winter under the open sky, adding that this will only compound the issue and risk the lives of people across the State.
Mehbooba said that entire Anantnag district was badly affected due to the floods but the relief was yet to reach the affected families. The houses, crops, agriculture fields, orchards and public infrastructure have suffered massive damage in most parts of the district and situation was really bad on ground.
PDP president further said that the sanitation was another important issue, Government was not paying heed to. “It is unfortunate that hardly any major effort was visible on the sanitation front leaving people prone to the spread of diseases”, she said.
She further expressed concern over the non-availability of ration in the affected and unaffected areas of the State. “Even the paid ration, as per the people, was not available at the State run depots, which speaks volumes about the lack of coordination among various Government agencies”, she said.