More than four months have elapsed when devastating floods brought havoc to the valley, but more particularly to the city of Srinagar where low-lying areas were submerged under knee-deep waters. Thousands of families were affected, some extensively and other moderately. The Prime Minister flew in, and after an aerial survey, announced one thousand crore rupees relief aid for the victims. He also asked the State Government to conduct survey of the losses suffered by the people of the affected areas and submit a report to the centre. The State Government took more than a month to prepare and submit the report. It asked for a sum of forty-one lakh crores of rupees to compensate the losses of individual families or of public property.
However, the Centre deputed a team of experts from National Disaster Management Authority to conduct survey and assessment of the losses. This was necessitated by inability of the State Disaster Management Authority, an organization for which the Centre had sometimes back provided grants by way of building infrastructure. However, September floods showed that this State organization was completely dysfunctional and failed to deliver goods. Of course the heads of two of its branches, one in Srinagar and the other in Jammu, and some handful of staff members drew their salary but did not have the infrastructure to perform the duty for which they are paid. It was shocking to know that the organization was dysfunctional to the extent that nothing could be expected from it by way of either providing relief to the victims or making proper assessment of the quantum of losses suffered.
Strangely, it was found that there was a wide gap between the two reports before the Central Government; one submitted by the State Government and the other by the National Disaster Management Authority. According to the latter, the number of the houses that had collapsed or met with damages was far less than what the State report said. Beset with confusion on near precise quantum of losses, the Central Government asked the State Government to undertake re-verification of beneficiaries and make sure that relief was credited to their bank accounts. Some glaring discrepancies were found. For example, nine persons claiming to have been affected by the floods showed only one bank account. There surfaced more doubts and as such it became necessary to make full verification otherwise injustice would be done to genuine victims. Somehow the State Government adopted lackadaisical attitude and did not handle the matter of disbursal of relief on war footing. The victims protested as harsh winter of Kashmir set in and they had not been provided with means to face it.
This is the background that necessitated the Governor to issue orders to the officials to ensure that the amount of relief was paid to the genuine victims by 23rd of January failing which the Government would take a serious note of the failure on the part of concerned authorities to comply with the order. Consequently, the Divisional Commissioners of Jammu and Kashmir Divisions have been directed to proceed immediately with verification process and ensure that deserving beneficiaries received the aid before the stipulated date. The entire Revenue Department has been galvanized into action.
The Centre has issued clear instructions that the amount of relief will not be paid by hand but will be deposited in the bank account of the concerned beneficiary. If anybody has not opened bank account, he would be encouraged and advised to make use of the Jan Dhan Yojna floated by the Prime Minister. The banks have been advised to ensure that the relief amount was credited in the account of genuine account holders. Fake bank accounts have come to the notice of authorities and, as such, the banks have declined to credit the amount of relief in such accounts.
We highly appreciate the concern of the Governor in mitigating the suffering of the people. Re-verification should not have taken such a long time. Most of the disbursements are withheld for re-verification. At the same time the National Disaster Management Authority has impressed upon the State Government to make efforts to make the State Disaster Management Authority fully functional. Realizing that it had faltered in its duty of keeping the SDMA functional, the State Government engaged the Tata Institute of Social Science for conducting a survey of the flood situation in Kashmir and suggest measures to make the SDMA functional in letter and in spirit. The said institute has completed the field work and submitted its report. An important suggestion made is that the SDMA should have a permanent Secretariat because the State of Jammu and Kashmir is prone to natural calamities more than any other State. We also expect that the Governor will consider the recommendations of the said panel and take steps to build the structure of the SDMA in a befitting manner. There is hardly a winter in Kashmir when the National Highway is not blocked by monsoon rains or December-January snow and frost. In rainy season low lying areas in Jammu and in the valley get inundated, rivers are flooded and nullahs are full to the brim. Thus almost throughout the year, there is apprehension of natural calamity overtaking the State. This recurring challenge can be met only when the disaster management structure is in place. While the Governor has taken the necessary step of ordering disbursement of relief, we hope that he will also order restructuring of the State Disaster Management Authority as early as possible.
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