Speaking to people in Pulwama and other areas he visited on Friday morning to monitor relief and rehabilitation measures and receive the first hand information about the same, the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah assured the people that he and his Government is with them at this juncture of crisis and everything possible would be done to give required succor to the flood affected families for their rehabilitation.The Chief Minister said that priority has been given to make food grains and other essentials available to the people besides making hospitals functional and cleaning garbage and carcasses from the flood hit areas. He expressed hope that in the next few days situation will further improve and the relief and rehabilitation work will get intensified.
The Chief Minister also chaired a meeting of district officers and was briefed about the relief and rehabilitation works going on in the district. He directed the officers to ensure full support and help to the affected families and ensure that necessary relief reaches to them hassle-free.The Chief Minister also visited some fruit orchards affected by the floods and heavy rains. He inaugurated bridge at Gador which was damaged due to flood and has been reconstructed by the Army temporarily to connect Pulwama district with other areas. He also appreciated Army for constructing the temporary bridge at Gador and underlined the need for having a concrete bridge at the location to withstand floods and other such eventualities.
The Chief Minister while speaking to a gathering near the bridge he inaugurated, referred to the devastation caused by the flood and said that the rise of water level in river Jehlum was unprecedented which damaged its bunds and overflowed at various places. He said that water level not only surpassed the danger mark of 18 foot but went many foots above the 30 feet mark on the water level measuring gauge. He said that some areas in Srinagar like Qamarwari, Bemina, Batmallu, Jawaharnagar, Rajbagh, Indira Nagar etc are still water logged.
The Chief Minister also referred to the huge damage caused by the floods to the crops particularly paddy, maize, vegetable and fruit. He said he has taken up the issue of waving off the loans taken by the farmers on the Kissan Credit Cards with the Centre Government. He said he is hopeful that Centre Government will accede to his proposal to provide necessary succor to farmers and fruit growers.Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah in a meeting with the various cellular telecommunication companies functioning in the State impressed upon them to upgrade their efforts for complete restoration of mobile and internet services in the valley as early as possible.“You should work on war footing to ensure early restoration of the telecommunication services”, he told the senior officers and engineers of these companies.
The Chief Minister said that in order to smoothen the relief and rehabilitation work launched in the State by the Government to reach out all affected families, the dependable telephone and internet service is of paramount importance.The representatives of telecommunication companies assured the Chief Minister that everything possible will be done to restore the services completely.The Chief Minister in a meeting with fruit growers representatives, who met him here, expressed his solidarity with them and said that the Government would take all measures to ensure transportation of fruit from the State to the terminal markets.Omar Abdullah told them that the Horticulture Marketing and Transport Departments have been given directions to work in close cooperation with Fruit Growers Associations for transportation of fruit from the State to outside markets. (KNS)