Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Sept 6: The massive floods that hit Jammu and Kashmir, particularly Kashmir Valley, were building up over three days and cannot be described as flash-floods. Timely alert and intervention could have lessened the magnitude of destruction.
Further, there is need to reinvent traditional flood prevention measures such as reviving the flood channels that had successfully prevented such deluge in the event of floods in the past.
This was opined by experts at a meeting convened by the Press Club of India here on Tuesday to express solidarity with the people of the calamity hit State and also chalk-out measures to render help to the people in distress.
The PCI also started a fund raising campaign for the purpose.
Initiating the dialogue, Salim Beigh, member National Monuments Authorities, said that indications of an impending flood like situation were available three days before it really hit. The administrative set up could have predicted the water levels and warned people.
He expressed surprise that no flood protection work in the traditional sense of the term had been taken up since 1965. “Channels and flood protection bunds were what used to save Srinagar and other parts of the Valley from flash floods,” he observed.
Mr Beigh said that the State administrative machinery should be revived at the earliest so that huge challenge of relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction could be taken up.
Dr G N Qazi, Vice-Chancellor, Jamia Hamdard University and a son of the soil, said that the catastrophe caused by the floods was the result of large scale vandalism of the Valley’s green cover and systematic destruction of the traditional flood prevention network. “The disaster was in the making for over half a century and the successive Governments should have realized the threat and acted accordingly,” he added.
President Press Club of India, Anand Sahay said that total focus should be on saving people’s lives and providing relief.
Former secretary general of the Press Club, Anil Anand rued that certain vested interests were trying to vitiate the atmosphere by politicizing the relief and rescue operations. He drew attention of the gathering towards damage and losses suffered by people in Poonch, Rajouri and Udhampur districts alongwith low lying areas of Jammu.
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