MANDI, HP, Sept 10:
Unprecedented floods in Jammu and Kashmir have paralyzed the supply line to Leh and Ladakh as the Srinagar-Leh main road has been fractured at many places badly affecting the relief and rehabilitation measures in the Valley devastated by floods.
Consequently the supplies of essential commodities to army and civilian population has been adversely interrupted because Pathankot-Srinagar national highway has been inundated and fractured by floods at many points causing great hardship to the residents of the valley. Senior BJP leader and former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, during interview with this reporter, said Manali-Leh road is the only lifeline open for the supply of food grains and essential goods to Jammu and Kashmir and areas on the Indo-China border.
He accused the successive UPA governments at the Centre for not paying due attention to the most strategic Manali-Leh road for over the last six decades. It was in the supreme national interest to have built an all-weather link through network of roads and tunnels. Mr Dhumal lamented that former visionary Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had taken an initiative to construct Rohtang tunnel, but his initiative was not implemented on a war-footing by Congress-led UPA governments. Its work went on at a snail’s pace.
Manali-Leh rail link was conceived on papers only. Successive railway ministers did not take any initiative to extend the rail network to Manali and Leh, he bemoaned. Rather the expansion of railways in Himachal Pradesh remained zero over the past over six decades. Pathankot-Jogindernagar and Shimla-Kalka railway lines had been constructed during the British rule, he added. He said the J&K floods should prove an eye-opener for those who neglected the dire necessity of rail-road network in the strategic state of Himachal Pradesh having border with China.
According to army sources, normally Manali-Leh road is closed by September 15, every year. But this year due to abnormal conditions and floods in Jammu and Kashmir valley the Border Roads Organisation had a challenging job to keep the road open up to December 31, said 38 BRTF Commander. He reminded that similar situation had been faced by the army during the Kargil war of 1999 when arms and ammunition had been rushed through Manali-Leh road. The Manali-Leh rail link has also been neglected in the rail budgets by the UPA governments at the grave risk concerning the national security and integrity of the country despite great concern expressed by the BJP governments in Himachal Pradesh and at the Centre. (UNI)
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