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SADIQ ‑ SHABAN

There was no negligence on the part of the government, says Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister.

This September the state of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) witnessed its worst floods in more than a century. Hundreds died while thousands were ren- dered homeless in what was called a ‘national calamity’ by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. With more than two million people directly impacted in J&K, the state government has been rushing against time to put hospitals, schools and local adminis- trative units back on track. More than a month after the disaster struck, large parts of Srinagar are devastated with no access to clean water, adequate sanitation services and Internet. The state’s infrastructure is destroyed. People have lost their homes, businesses, crops and livestock. As winter looms, there is an urgent need to rehabilitate those affected by the disaster. Omar Abdullah, Chief Minister of J&K and scion of the powerful Abdullah family, has come under intense fire for his response (or lack thereof) and subsequent handling of the post-flood situation. In a can- did conversation with Khaleej Times in Srinagar, the man in the hot seat, bared it all. Excerpts from the exclusive interview.

Your level of preparedness for the floods has been questioned. Why did  you delay in pressing the alarm but- tons when water levels rose? Would you call it negligence on part of the government? There was no negligence on the part of the government. In fact writ- ten warnings were sent out by the Di- visional Commissioner to the various District Commissioners asking them to keep a close watch on the situation and also, if necessary, to evacuate ar- eas based on water levels. Certain evacuation procedures were followed in what we thought were ‘at risk’ areas. Some people left. A lot of people chose not to. Most people opted to stay on as they had seen floods in the past and were not unduly concerned. The fact that we had our worst floods in more than a century meant that it was not possible to predict the extent to which water log- ging would take place. Given how bad the magnitude of the problem was, I think the government’s response was adequate.

The fact that the death toll in Srinagar is less than 50 whereas in the beginning of the floods people were expecting the death toll to reach thousands, tells you a lot about how the government responded to this crisis. So you were prepared for the floods? We were prepared for floods but not on this scale. Frankly it was impossible to prepare for this volume of water. It is not possible to stop a natural disaster from happening. How well- prepared you are in a situation like this is gauged by how you limit the damage caused by that natural disaster. There have been no deaths on ac- count of starvation, cold or epidemic during or after the floods. I think that tells you the story of how this govern- ment responded to the crisis. There is an apprehension that the government dithered on a key decision to breach Kandizal, an important embankment in river Jhelum. Is that true? The Kandizal breach took place itself. It is a fact that Javed Mustafa Meer, the local MLA of Kandizal (of the PDP) positioned himself on the bund and didn’t allow us to breach it. However nature took its own course and Kandizal breached itself. When people talk of Kandizal as a flood ba- sin, that’s a 25-year old perspective. That was when there was no population in Kandizal. Today more than 200,000 people reside in that area. The Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said that the Omar Abdullah government was inade- quately prepared for the floods. Your comments.

In the immediate aftermath of the flood nobody responded. Even the army cantonment was under water. The BSF and CRPF barracks were submerged. It is all very well for the MoS Home to sit in a judgment of my government but I would like to ask him, “What happened to the cell phones? To this date BSNL (India’s state-owned telecommunications company) does not work properly. I don’t have Internet services. Banks have not re-opened completely. The post and telegraph office is not func- tioning properly. Criticise me if you may, but please sit in judgment of your (central) government also.” Would you concede that you mis- handled the post-flood situation? No, there was no question of mis- handling the crisis. Our mishandling of the situation would have meant a multiplication of deaths. As soon as the floods came we were able to establish a base of communication.

A crisis management group was set up to review the situation. Boats were or- ganised and launched within the first few hours of the crisis unfolding. The fact that we operated under huge con- straints is well known. Was unplanned urbanisation also responsible for what happened? There is an element of unplanned urbanisation that played its part but largely the floods were a result of growth in population. As population increases our towns also grow. What were traditionally flood basins are populated areas today. If you look at it, the oldest colonies in Srinagar were amongst the hardest hit. For in- stance, Raj Bagh area that was settled in 1960s. Newer areas of Srinagar like Shalimar, Nishat etc were not impact- ed. It is the posh parts of relatively older Srinagar that got hit the hardest. Kashmir floods have been called a ‘disaster of international magnitude’ with losses reported at more than $16 billion. How are you going to compen- sate people? Kashmir has suffered a huge loss. We have just finalised our memoran- dum to the government of India.

Our initial assessment ($16 billion) may have been on the higher side. Now that assessments from the field are coming in we shall be in a position to revise the assessment downwards, al- though not dramatically. Both direct and related loss has tak- en place. Although floods happened in Srinagar, tourists have stopped going to holiday spots like Pahalgam and Gulmarg. The hoteliers, cabbies, po- ny-wallas are losing their earnings as a result of the floods. If you add both direct and indirect losses, the magni- tude is much higher. We expect the government of In- dia to take a lead. We are also in the process of involving agencies like the World Bank and the Asian Develop- ment Bank (ADB). We hope to have a comprehensive package to compen- sate people for the losses. What is your long-term rehab plan? We have a two-fold plan. Obviously one is to rehabilitate individuals and businesses for the losses that they suf- fered in terms of their homes, shops, business establishments etc. We hope to compensate the losses suffered in agriculture and horticulture also.

We had previously submitted a Rs22 billion proposal to the govern- ment of India for Jhelum flood man- agement. If that proposal had been accepted and implemented, floods of this magnitude might not have taken place. We are reiterating our demand to the central government for a Jhe- lum flood management in Kashmir as well as the Chenab flood management in Jammu. It is Rs55 billion package in all which is something that the cen- tral government should seriously con- sider. How do you propose non-resident Kashmiris and others who wish to contribute towards flood relief/rehab should do so? We have set up the Chief Minister’s Flood Relief Fund. The account is maintained with the J&K Bank and will be independently audited and shared publicly. People will know what the funds donated for the flood have been used for. An advantage of donating to the Chief Minister’s Flood Relief Fund is that it qualifies for all the tax benefits, which makes a difference.

Nature is unpredictable. What is being done to ensure that the state is fully equipped to handle the situation if such a disaster were to strike again? The disaster has taught us some valuable lessons in terms of our communication, the way we stock sup- plies, our linkages etc. There will be a point when we will compile all these lessons. Right now we are focused on rehabilitating people and getting re- lief to them. Once this is taken care of, we shall have to sit down and rework our standard operative procedures so that should, God forbid, a flood like this re-occur we will be better able to handle it. Let’s not forget that a flood of this magnitude came after a 100 years, so I am expecting that at least in my lifetime we will not have a situation like this again.

(The views expressed here are those of the author’s and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of Kashmir Magazine.)