Excelsior Correspondent
Jammu, Sept 24: Former State Chief Minister and PDP patron, Mufti Mohd Sayeed today said that credibility of the State Administration was at stake and it should ensure fair distribution of relief among the real rain and flood victims.
In a press statement here, the PDP leader said that the State was passing through a crucial phase and it was the time when one has not to shore up individual political stakes through distribution of relief among the victims, but ensure that the help reaches the most deserving people. He once again offered his party’s full support to the Government to tackle the unending crisis, caused by unprecedented floods, in Kashmir and major parts of Jammu province.
Mufti said that instead of indulging in long term policy talk with the Prime Minister at this juncture the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir should focus on immediate issues and gear up his administration which still seems in disarray. He said the invisibility of administration at this crucial juncture was not only shocking but intriguing as well. “It is the same administration, officers and civil servants, who have worked most impressively in the past”, the PDP patron said adding, “ The same administration has performed exceptionally well at all the crucial times, whether it was tackling the post militancy reconstruction or the earthquake of 2005”. He said same spirit has to be revived to pull the people of Kashmir out of their most testing hour but it was unfortunate that the political leadership in the Government had without exception, proved grossly unequal to the task.
Responding to widespread complaints that elementary life saving help was still awaited by most uprooted victims, Mufti said instead of trying to seek more assistance from Centre at this juncture, it was important to ensure judicious distribution of what the State has already received. He said there are complaints of gross misconduct and favoritism in distribution of relief which need to be strongly curbed.
Mufti said reconstruction of the devastated infrastructure, private properties, commercial establishments and business enterprises is a big challenge for this Government, which in any case is about to complete its term. “It would only add to miseries of a suffering population, if issues of temporary shelters, ration and basic sanitation and clearance of debris and garbage are not tackled with speed, uniformity and efficiency”, Mufti Sayeed.
He said that though it was encouraging to find the Central Government initially responding with concern and empathy, but Prime Minister’s job is not over with his aerial survey of flood affected areas and announcement of package. Flood has created an unprecedented situation in the State which resulted in the death and destruction of not just property and infrastructure but it has hit the economy the hardest. The business community in most cases has lost the very capacity for revival and the Central Government has to respond to this situation with urgency.
Mufti said the impact of flood on horticulture, agriculture and tourism, constituting the core of State’s economy too, has been devastating. These sectors, he said had seen Kashmir sail through worst times, but now as rest of the economy is destroyed, the loss in these sectors will only multiply problems resulting in more unemployment and increase in poverty. The Central Government will have to take realistic view of the impact of flood which has as perhaps nowhere else hit both the rural and urban economies and devise liberal response, Mufti added.
Expressing concern at the inability of Government to de-water major areas in Srinagar, Mufti said the reports about lack of coordination between State and Central Governments are appalling. He said the non- deployment of heavy duty dewatering machines received from Central Government for more than a fortnight now amounts to criminal negligence and only confirms the impression about the Government that it is nonexistent.
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