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J&K assembly session: Speaker allows discussion on flood damage after ruckus
BJP members sought increase in compensation and also urged the state government to not delay the demand of compensation package further from the centre as the winter was setting in and people were still living in tents and under tarpaulin in many areas
Jammu and Kashmir assembly on Thursday discussed the devastation caused by the recent floods and natural calamities in the region. BJP members sought increase in compensation and also urged the state government to not delay the demand of compensation package further from the centre as the winter was setting in and people were still living in tents and under tarpaulin in many areas.
After protests from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members seeking discussion on rehabilitation of people affected by floods in August , speaker Abdul Rahim Rather allowed the legislators to speak over the issue in zero hour and beyond.
BLP MLA Pawan Gupta said that the region was affected by the calamity of severe nature owing to continuous rains, cloudburst and floods in rivers. “In Udhampur alone, 2,771 houses were damaged due to the calamity. Not only the houses, our crops, shools, roads and health services all were damaged,” he said.
He alleged that no relief reached the people on time. He said that the areas affected by the floods were not even temporarily restored with just 12.5 crore on rehabilitation and 5 crore spent of relief. “There is no temporary restoration and what to speak of permanent restoration,” he said.
He said that people whose pucca houses were damaged are to be given 1.2 lakh whose actual prices cross over 20 lakh each. “1.2 lakh to pucca house holders and less to kucha house owners under SDRF has not yet been distributed to the people,” he said.
He said that the J&K government didn’t recommend to centre for the grant of NDRF relief yet. “It was mandatory for the government to ask the centre for NDRF because it acts as a top up on SDRF. Till today there has been no recommendation. CM recently said that we are recommending it to the centre,” he said.
He demanded that the amount of compensation to damaged houses be increased and the state government should immediately send the recommendation to centre for compensation under NDRF.
Another BJP member from Samba, Surjit Singh Salathia said, “CM Omar went everywhere but what was the result? Did the people get compensation?,” he said.
He said that the government should rework on the assessment of losses as the loss calculation was not done properly by the revenue officers like patwaris who didn’t visit the areas on the ground. “There should be a comprehensive report on loss assessment,” he said.
National Conference MLA from Gulabgarh, Khurshid Ahmed said that winter was approaching and people were without roof over their heads. “Our people are living under tarpaulin. District administration provided no tents. Some are in schools or panchayat ghars. Life will get difficult in winters like this,” Ahmed said.
“There should be a plan for their rehabilitation or a temporary sheds be constructed till the time centre’s compensation policy matures. If we wait for the centre’s relief, when this will come and when they will save their lives. Similarly our crops are 100% damaged but agriculture department has disbursed only 40 % relief,” he said.
MLA from Thanamandi constituency, Muzaffar Iqbal Khan, who is part of the ruling coalition in J&K, said that data reveals that the most damage in J&K due to floods was in Rajouri’s far flung areas including his constituency. “Most houses were damaged there but no one from the government reached there. The reason was that the focus remained on capital cities which also suffered damage,” he said.
He said that the assessment was not done properly as the officers didn’t go on ground. “Patwaris sought details on phones which led to no assessment of many affected people. That is why many files of people were rejected. Also files were stopped because the officials said we don’t have funds,” he alleged.
“There should be instructions for re-assessment of damages and compensation should be more as SDRF compensation won’t help the people enough,” he said .
