SRINAGAR, Sept 10: Water levels have started receding in Srinagar city, one of the worst hit by the deluge but four lakh people were today still waiting for help in the flood-ravaged Kashmir valley.
In general the water level is receding but areas downstream of Jhelum River are experiencing increase in water levels, official source said.
“In Srinagar town there is a decrease in water level by 3 to 4 feet since the beginning of the floods, whereas there is a rise of 6 inches in Wuller Lake. Manasbal Lake saw a reduction by 3 inches bringing the water level to 18.3 feet, which is still 4.3 feet above danger mark,” they said.
Srinagar town remains the most critical part of flood hit areas.
“All those areas where it was not possible to reach earlier remain the focus of the rescue mission today,” he stressed and added that the areas of Rajbag, Jawahar Nagar, Gogji Bag and Shivpora where the bulk of the stranded people are located saw major effort for evacuation.
While greater desperation was seen in areas which are on the outer fringes, people in the interiors of these colonies are displaying a great sense of responsibility and directing the rescue teams to those people who are worse affected.
Many camps of Army located in South Kashmir and Srinagar have also been flooded and over 1000 Army personnel and families are stranded without food and water. Water, electricity, supplies and other services have been hit within the cantonments.
Authorities were also trying to fix telecommunication links snapped since Sunday afternoon on a war footing and hope to restore it in a phased manner.
Over 1000 Army personnel and their families are stranded in various camps in Kashmir without food and water even as Army personnel work on a war footing to evacuate civilians from their marooned homes.
“Many camps of Army located in South Kashmir and Srinagar have been flooded and over 1000 Army personnel and their families are stranded without food and water”, an Army officer said.
Army personnel working round-the-clock to evacuate lakhs of people trapped in flood-ravaged areas are yet to reach to them.
With water, electricity, supplies and other services hit, Army personnel have adopted measures to conserve resources so that major share of supplies are made available for the civil population, he said.
There are over 20 small and big Army camps located in Central and South Kashmir belts, which are affected due to floods.
On September 8, the Army had rescued 1400 of its personnel and their families including 120 children trapped in Kashmir’s Army headquarter at Badamibagh cantonment.
Badamibagh Cantonment, which house Kashmir’s Army’s headquarters and biggest Military hospital along with areas of Shivpora and Indranagar, got submerged as the water level rose alarmingly due to breach in Jehlum River on September 7.
An NDRF jawan was today attacked by angry locals here while few other personnel of the force were heckled while they were rendering relief and rescue operations in the flood-hit areas.
Officials said a National Disaster Response Force trooper received severe injuries on his hand when the locals attacked him.
The locals apparently wanted the NDRF men to concentrate on a particular area and when the force personnel decided to go to a different marooned area, the locals attacked them.
“The jawan has been sent to Chandigarh for treatment and was accommodated on a scheduled IAF flight going to that city. Few incidents of our men being heckled are being witnessed since yesterday in the State,” a senior officer said.
Worried by the development, the NDRF and senior Home Ministry officials have asked the Cabinet Secretary to devise some mechanism so that troops are kept safe while they render their duty.
“It has been decided that CRPF will guard rescue teams but we are still to find a way to implement this mechanism as there is limited space on the boat.Carrying securitymen on boat means reducing space for people to be rescued,” a senior official said.
Meanwhile, the government has rushed NDRF chief O P Singh to Srinagar to personally monitor and supervise rescue operations in the State.
The NDRF has deployed 19 teams and over 150 boats in the flood-hit States for these operations.
To ensure that the State administration is able to communicate properly while dealing with flood situation and reaching out to people in Kashmir, the Army has provided officials with satellite phones and mobile communication sets.
“In the effort to revive communication in the affected areas, the Army had already provided satellite phones to the civilian administration (to reach out to the people in distress due to flood situation),” an Army officer said today.
He said besides that, additional nine satellite phones and 100 Mobile Cell Communication Sets have been distributed to civil officials for coordinating the relief efforts.
“Ten STD booths are planned to be set up, 30 generator sets with mobile charging stations are being air lifted from Chandigarh to Srinagar,” the official said.
Aircel is being assisted to revive mobile services from tower at Barzula and satellite connectivity is being provided by airlifting the Base Transmitting Station of BSNL from Kargil to Srinagar, he added.
With flood affecting the functioning of All India Radio in Jammu and Kashmir, Prasar Bharti has sent a special team to the State to ensure that regular broadcasts continue.
Senior officials at the country’s public broadcaster said that the deluge, which has brought the state to a virtual standstill, has made the task of carrying out broadcasting radio as well as television content very difficult but efforts are on to ensure these services reach the people.
“The situation has been difficult but despite that Doordarshan Kashmir channel has continued to function on the Direct to Home (DTH) platform,” a senior official said.
He, however, added transmission of programmes by All India Radio (AIR) has been disrupted due to the flood situation.
“Some of the offices of Prasar Bharti organisations, Doordarshan and All India Radio have been flooded. Communication has also become much more difficult. However, efforts are on to continue the services.
“Perhaps for the first time in many years, the services of AIR have been disrupted and experts have been sent to Srinagar to ensure that FM broadcasts are resumed at the earliest,” the official said.
The official said that among the people who have been specially sent to the State include a specialist programmer and two engineers while senior officials are engaged in the supervisory work.
“Radio is a priority as it can play a most important role in such situations as messages for the public can be relayed on this medium which people can access even over a mobile phone. We expect the FM broadcasting to resume soon,” the official said.
Telecom services in flood-hit Kashmir Valley are slowly being restored with BSNL resuming connectivity to 7,000 landline phones and 14 mobile towers in Srinagar city.
Private sector operator Bharti Airtel’s network has been restored in Jammu, Kargil, Ladakh and Leh. Airtel said inter operator roaming has been configured – thus allowing customers to make calls by latching onto other networks in areas where Airtel network is yet to be restored.
Aircel is providing connectivity to people through its 3G sites and is also working to restore 2G sites.
State-run BSNL said 14 base transceiver stations (BTS) or mobile towers are functioning in Srinagar providing connectivity to 15,000 mobile phones whereas 7,000 landline connections and 2,000 broadband connections are also working.
The operator said another 40 BTS will start functioning later today at 10 PM with restoration of another mobile exchange.
Flood waters started receding in Kashmir Valley today.
Bharti Airtel’s network has been restored in Jammu, Kargil, Ladakh and Leh. Airtel said inter operator roaming has been configured – thus allowing customers to make calls by latching onto other networks in areas where Airtel network is yet to be restored.
Aircel is providing connectivity to people through its 3G sites and is also working to restore 2G sites.
Bharti Infratel which provides tower infrastructure to mobile operators said 35 of its sites in Kashmir Valley are up and running and in the next couple of days, large chunk of its network will be restored.
Bharti Infratel MD DS Rawat said the firm has around 1400 sites in valley and full restoration will take around a week but a large chunk will be restored in next couple of days.
He said 600-700 sites are up but they are not connected to Srinagar, which is the common aggregation point for valley. Rawat added in the next few days, the sites will be connected to Srinagar.
Bharti Infratel has set up three war rooms in Srinagar, Jammu and Delhi to tackle the crises.
Airtel said 5 VSAT terminals with WiFi equipment were flown into Srinagar Airport yesterday and it has thereafter set up a public WiFi Hotspot, allowing everyone to use data services.
BSNL has set up two PCOs at the Srinagar airport where people can make free calls.
Airtel will install 4 more VSAT terminals in strategic locations as directed by rescue teams for public access to WiFi.
Airtel has set up free calling stations at various relief camps across J&K and free talk time worth 50 minutes has been credited to all Airtel mobile customers in Kashmir.
Idea Cellular said it is also auto-crediting Rs 12 in the accounts of customers with low balance, in Srinagar region, to ensure that such people are able to make emergency calls if stranded.
Idea said its teams are working 24X7 to restore network in the affected areas, and ensure continuity of services.
Search engine Google has also launched a web application Person Finder that allows individuals to post the details of, and search for the status of, family members or friends affected by the disaster.
“To make emergency information available immediately, we have also launched a Onebox on Google Search in Hindi and English. This provides helpline information of the Army, Home Ministry, and NDRF Control Room,” Google said.
BSNL said the company has around 2126 mobile sites in J&K and 934 were affected by the disaster of which 32 have been restored.
The firm has 371 telephone exchanges of which 121 got affected and 31 have been restored so far.
BSNL has also set up 5 satellite terminals in Srinagar including at the residence of Chief Minister, Raj Bhawan and DG Police. It will set up another 5 terminals tomorrow at locations asked by the State Government. (Agencies)
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