A full year has passed by when devastating floods struck the Valley and some parts of Jammu region. In an unprecedented onslaught, floods inundated not only the low-lying areas of the city of Srinagar but also the posh areas and the main market that paralyzed life for many days. People in the Valley know that the Valley is flood prone but very rarely has the summer capital come under such a widespread devastating inundation. Naturally, this should have become a cause of great concern to the Government and the people. The natural calamity fully exposed the unprepared-ness of the Government agencies like Disaster Management Authority and Relief Department and other organs. The floods caught Government napping and the people had to pay the price for which they were not prepared.
The nullahs feeding the river and the land emerging from the river changing its course, encroachers and land grabbers who are basking in the sunshine of their political patrons and benefactors have occupied all illegally. They have illegally raised structures at sites that obstruct the flow of water when the river or the nullahs are in spate. It is a well-known thing that water bodies are prone to changing their course and thus either flooding new areas or leaving some areas dry. There is no standardized width measurement of the course of river Jhelum and the nullahs available in revenue records. As such, it becomes possible for land grabbers to lay claim to the dried up land, which in fact is part of the course of the river.
As the State Government mounted pressure on Central Government to dole out compensation to victims of September 2014 floods, the Central Government, among other measures deputed a Parliamentary Panel to assess the losses and to suggest various corrective measures to the State Government. The panel made a number of important suggestions and recorded severe warning that not taking corrective measures in good time to plug the loopholes, could lead to a situation, which it will be difficult to handle should a flood of same intensity recur in future. Many of these suggestions were of administrative nature and did not involve financial commitment. The Parliamentary Panel report has been critical as well as constructive and its suggestions are very well balanced. The regrettable thing is that the State Government has not taken any tangible step towards implementation of these suggestions. It has adopted nonchalant attitude towards its responsibility of taking measures to ensure safety from floods and inundation. It has not reacted to the Panel’s suggestion building byelaws with a view to the topography of the State so that encroachments on riverbanks are disallowed. What reason other than stakes could keep the Government back from such enactment? In the same vein, Panel’s strong recommendation of halting deforestation remains unimplemented. The Panel observes that the State Government had failed to take pre-emptive measures to reduce the impact of the floods. It has no trained staff to handle the disasters, and it is still undecided whether it should create a State level uniform training mechanism or leave it to the care of the district administration.
The crucial decisions needed to be taken in maximally reducing threat of floods pertain to digging second flood control channel, de-silting Hokarsar wetland, drudging the nullahs and the riverbed for de-silting, removing encroachments, raising and strengthening embankments and last but not the least giving teeth to the Disaster Management Authority. The Government does not seem to bother for these urgent measures. It has thrown the recommendations of the Parliamentary Panel to winds.
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