Centre showing stepmotherly treatment to J&K: Congress
Jammu, Sep 1: The Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) on Friday accused the Centre of meting out step motherly treatment to Jammu and Kashmir and asserted that the delay in a comprehensive relief package by it (the Centre) was adding to the woes of all those affected by flash floods and landslides.
“Neither has the Prime Minister visited Jammu and Kashmir so far nor announced any relief package for it (J&K) on the pattern of Himachal and Punjab. Why?” they questioned.
JKPCC working president Raman Bhalla, joined by the chief spokesperson Ravinder Sharma; former minister Mula Ram; in-charge PCC headquarter and ex-MLC Ved Mahajan; chairman of the JKPCC Kissan Cell Bharat Priye; and working chairman of the PCC Tribal department Choudhary Hussain Ali Waffa, raised these issues during a press conference at the party office.
They expressed grave concern over the slow pace of relief, rehabilitation and restoration measures of different kinds; as a result, people continued to suffer a lot.
JKPCC leaders took strong exception to the delay in the restoration of the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway; as a result, the fruit industry, transporters and traders suffered a huge loss of crores of rupees.
“The entire stretch of highway in Jammu and surrounding roads remained jam-packed with the loaded trucks, all around in the absence of restoration of Srinagar-Jammu NH and exploitation of the full potential of Jammu-Mughal Road,” they pointed out.
JKPCC leaders said that farmers suffered a lot as thousands of kanals of land and their livestock, especially belonging to the tribal Gujjar-Bakerwals residing near water bodies and rivers, were washed away.
“The administrative lapses, like the failure to lay down an embankment of 35 metres on the Chenab bank, led to huge destruction in the Pargwal area of Akhnoor, but no expert committee was constituted to identify the man-made lapses,” they rued.
Working president Raman Bhalla said that several villages and localities were sinking and many areas witnessed landslides.
“All such localities should be identified, and the residents should be relocated to safer zones. 5-marla land is inadequate for the rural population, as they need a place to keep their livestock as well. Such a population should be given adequate land besides residential purposes,” Bhalla said.
In this connection, he referred to the villages of Rah-Siot and Kasandhar in Akhnoor; Kalideh in Sunderbani in the district of Rajouri; Kalaban in Mendhar; Poonch Bhajwal; and several such areas in the region.
Bhalla demanded a technical team of experts to visit all such identified villages for study and suggest safety measures.
Referring to the faulty assessment of damages, chief spokesperson Ravinder Sharma pointed out a case of full house damage of one elderly woman, Parmeshwari Devi, widow of Khem Raj of Thandapani in Sunderbani of district Rajouri, who had been paid only Rs 4000 for full house damage.
“This is great injustice and eyewash. A multi-department team comprising the engineering wing should be part of the damage assessment teams for houses for proper assessment,” Sharma demanded.
Former minister Mula Ram stated that Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan should announce relief measures for farmers, fruit growers, milk producers and other allied sectors, including the waiver of KCC loans and dairy loans, besides the loss of agricultural-related machinery like pump sets of farmers.
“There are several irrigation areas where power to pump sets has not been restored, posing danger to left-out paddy crops. The Centre has not ordered any inquiry by experts to look into causes of huge loss to roads and bridges, to identify other reasons and fix responsibilities too,” he shared.
“More than one month of the Chisoti tragedy and other devastation in the region, the Prime Minister failed to visit J&K or announce any comprehensive relief package. As a result, the relief and rehabilitation measures are at a very slow pace, in the absence of a comprehensive package from the Centre,” JKPCC leaders alleged.
They impressed upon the Centre and UT government to speed up relief and rehabilitation measures on different fronts and expressed great concern over what they alleged was “the neglect of J&K by the Centre” so far. “The Prime Minister should visit here to make an assessment of damages personally and release a comprehensive package at the earliest without further delay,” they demanded.
