Death toll 277; need 13 lakh vaccines, 50 lakh chlorine tablets
Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today disclosed that loss caused by the floods to the State runs in thousands of Crores of rupees and his government is assessing the losses and will approach the centre for help.
Chief Minister told Excelsior: “We are assessing the losses suffered by the State due to floods and it runs into thousands of crores. In Anantnag only 8000 houses were fully damaged.”
Omar said that the death toll in floods since September 1 is 277. “We have recovered 233 bodies so far. The bodies of 44 members of a marriage party who were washed away by floods in Jammu region are yet to be recovered. There are no reported missing persons”, he said
Chief Minister said that the damage caused to the hospital equipment is huge. “The damage to the equipment of our four major hospitals in Srinagar city due to floods is around Rs 150 Crore.”
Omar said that his government is waiving off State taxes on hospital equipment and will approach centre for waiving of customs duty.“We are waiving off local taxes on import of medical equipments for our hospitals. I will take up the matter of waiving off of customs duty on import of medical equipments for our hospitals with the Centre”, he said
Chief Minister said Jammu and Kashmir needs 13 lakh measles vaccines and is deficient of 12 lakh. “We need 13 lakh vaccines for children between the age group of 0-15. Union Government has sent us one lakh vaccines and we are procuring more from the market.”
Omar said the State needs 50 lakh chlorine tablets for disinfecting drinking water. “We need 50 lakh chlorine tablets for disinfecting drinking water. We have received one lakh from Union government so far and will procure more.”
Chief Minister said that there are no signs of epidemic in the State. “There is no sign of any epidemic. The patients who report to medical camps and hospitals are suffering from regular illnesses.”
Omar said that government is disposing off the animal carcasses. “We disposed off 300 animal carcasses from Srinagar city. We are trying to dispose off the others. We are now focusing on disposal of garbage.”
Chief Minsiter said that Rs 55 crore have been deposited in his relief fund so far with major donation from UP. “Chief Minister’s Relief fund has received donations worth Rs 55 crore with Rs 20 from UP Chief Minister, Akhlesh Yadav.”
Omar said that the de-watering is a major problem and they have cut river and flood channel banks at several places to drain out water from flooded areas. “Our major concern is de-watering of the inundated areas at this time. We have deficiency of water pumps and got some of them from neighbouring areas. Now we have cut banks of rivers and flood channel at several places to drain out water from the inundated areas as pumps failed to drain it out.”
Chief minister said that government has distributed 1000 tonnes of relief material among the flood victims in the State so far.
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