Three months to the day have passed by when floods ravaged the Valley but a large number of affected families are still to be reached by State relief agencies. Hundreds of affected people blocked the Srinagar – Baramulla National Highway the other day to protest negligence of relief authorities in rehabilitating the devastated families. What they had been apprehending soon after they were uprooted has come true. The harsh Himalayan winter has set in and the night temperature has gone down below zero. Correspondents reaching various groups of affected people have noted the disappointment expressed by those who are constrained to spend the cold nights under the cover of tarpaulin tents on the roadside.
In the first place, there is confusion about the exact number of affected families. While the Government sources claim that 1.4 lakh families are affected, unofficial sources put the number at around 6 lakh. May be the families living with relatives or in rented accommodation have not been counted on account of some error. Anyway the variance in the number of affected families is not the point of our discussion. Soon after the floods happened, the State authorities had announced that it would provide pre-fabricated houses at the rate of 500 houses per month so that the sufferers will not have to spend the harsh winter in tents. The protesting people say that nobody ever reached them and no relief was handed over to them. This has caused serious disappointment and resentment among the sufferers.
It is generally believed that the Government and politicians in the Valley have given more attention to the ensuing Assembly elections rather than to mitigating the woes of flood sufferers. This again is a controversial statement. The polling was announced two and a half months after the floods ravaged the Valley. What were the Government agencies doing all that time and why did not they undertake relief and rehabilitation on war footing instead of wasting time on less important things. In fact both Central and State Governments will have to answer the question. People expected that the two Governments would join hands and formulate schemes and programmes to provide at least temporary shelter to the sufferers so that they have had not to pass the harsh winter and biting cold in tents. It is true that once the Election Commission of India decided that elections would be held as per the schedule drawn earlier, it is but natural that political activities would be initiated by the stakeholders. This is an important activity and the new Government had to be formed as per schedule. Therefore the civil society or flood sufferers cannot claim that the Government should have suspended political activity and turned its full attention to them. After all the administrative authorities have the duty of carrying forward the task of providing relief to the victims. Actually it could be called administrative failure. At this point of time we are again reminded that the State Disaster Management agency has totally failed in performing the duty assigned to it. True it may not have adequate funds at its disposal to manage a tragedy of such magnitude as the September floods, but at least it had been provided by the Centre with some money that could have facilitated the agency to initiate a proper plan of first assessing the exact damage and then drawing the plan of relief and rehabilitation. Aftermath of the floods has shown that the agency had just its two offices in Srinagar and Jammu receiving their salary and not performing in any way. Therefore it was the responsibility of the State Government to have taken proper action. Had the administration been efficient, it would not have allowed this agency to remain unproductive and non-delivering. Conversely, it should have been pro-active so much so that it would have demanded more funds to be able to perform its functions in a State of emergency.
Much can be said by way of slackness on the part of administrative machinery in the State. The sum total of this discourse is that there is no time left to do more discussions and debates. This is the time of action. The issue has a human side. If people are left exposed to harsh winter, snow, icy winds and rains, the apprehension is that many people will be in the danger of loosing their precious lives especially the old, infirm, children and the sick. This will be a human disaster. The administration has to gear up for meeting this dire situation without a day’s loss. All resources at the disposal of the Government shall have to be diverted to providing shelter to the stranded families. It is a matter of human rights and no Government worth its salt can afford to be uncaring of these thousands of families. Negligence in providing shelter to them is nothing short of a crime against humanity.
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