We are greatly distressed by the reports that local politics has been a strong element in handling the flooded Jhelum in recent days when parts of the city submerged under its waters. A flood channel was built in the days of the Maharaja that diverted the over brimming Jhelum waters during heavy rains to a conjunction below the northern peripheries of Srinagar city. By diverting flood waters into this channel, the city of Srinagar, parts of which are low lying, was saved from floods and inundation. At a place called Kandizal, the flood waters would be diverted with the result that some of the adjoining villages would no doubt get into trouble but the city as such was saved. This is a purely technical and engineering issue that usually is let to the discretion of the engineers and higher authorities.
But by reports that are coming in it is said that local MLAs played a decisive role in cutting the bund of the Jhelum at various places through which enormous quantity of flood waters entered the city and caused havoc that we have been witnessing for last three weeks. In the same way another MLA whose constituency falls along the bank of the flood channel also did not want that flood channel should be operated by the engineers and technician. It is travesty of democratic dispensation that in the first place we have still a large chunk of uneducated and illiterate electorate that is unable to understand that politicians are not engineers and more often than not they can’t take decisions in which entire State’s destiny is involved. If some MLAs exerted pressure on flood control authorities to do or not to do something that had serious implications for the entire city of Srinagar and that disrupted the total administration causing billions of rupees damage then it is a very serious matter.
Somebody should take the initiative and demand judicial enquiry into the flooding of the capital city and its consequences. If the flood channel had been allowed to function the way it has been designed at the best a few hundred families in the proximity of the channel would have had to be relocated, the city and its posh and prime areas would have been saved from devastating floods. When things gradually return to normalcy, we hope the Government will pursue the idea of setting up an inquiry into the entire case.
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