Deficiency of pumps hampers dewatering
Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Sept 18: The Civil Secretariat that re-opened here today after 11 days could not become operational as the ground floor of the seven-storey building is still under three feet of water and around 744 employees marked their attendance with the security staff at main entrance before heading home.
According to attendance sheets prepared by the security staff of the Civil Secretariat 744 employees out of over 3500 marked their attendance. However, they headed for their homes as the Civil Secretariat is still inundated.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and his Cabinet colleagues didn’t report at the Civil Secretariat in the morning when it re-opened after floods. However, four Ministers arrived after 11 a.m. These include Mian Altaf, Abdul Rahim Rather, Ghulam Ahmad Mir and Manohar Lal. Chief Secretary, Mohammad Iqbal Khanday also visited the Civil Secretariat in the afternoon.
The Ministers could not reach the Secretariat due to the water-logging in the ground floor. They instead entered the State Legislative Assembly complex, where water has been drained out, and stayed there. The Secretary of the Assembly, Mohammad Ramzan also came to his office and later left after half an hour.
The efforts to drain out water from Civil Secretariat is going on as 15 pumps of Fire and Emergency Services Department are operating round the clock to drain water from the area.
Rajinder Hak, Joint Director Fire Services, told Excelsior that so far three inches of water have receded since yesterday from Civil Secretariat and its adjoining areas.
“We are not getting any suction head from which we could have lifted water. We are using pipes to drain it out from inside. Since yesterday the water level in Secretariat area has receded by 3 inches. This is not only Secretariat but locality around it and Kashmir Haat which is on the other side of the Civil Secretariat.”
Hak said that Fire Services is operating 54 de-watering pumps across Srinagar city to de-water the inundated areas.
The State Government on Tuesday announced that the Civil Secretariat will start functioning from September 18 and directed the employees to report for work.
The employees after marking their attendance at Civil Secretariat returned soon as they found their office inundated. However, at 11 a.m. tippers were pressed into services to ferry employees into Secretariat premises.
The employees were ferried in tippers and then taken to the Civil Secretariat from the main gate and without alighting from the vehicle anywhere were dropped back at the main gate. They then headed for their homes.
Media persons were not allowed beyond the main gate by the security personnel saying they had no orders to allow media inside the Civil Secretariat.
Bilquis, PA to director Finance Department of Health and Medical Education who also marked attendance returned home saying it is hasty decision of Government to re-open Civil Secretariat when it is still inundated.
“I marked my attendance and came out as there are several feet of water inside. There is no fun of going inside. They should have kept boats to ferry the employees. We can’t wade through the waters”, said Bilquis.
“It is a senseless decision. They are making fun of it. We are being ferried in a Tipper that makes a round of Civil Secretariat and drops us at the main gate”, says Shabir Ahmad, a Secretariat employee.
“If the Ministers and top bureaucrats were so sincere about opening of offices, they should have been here at the reporting time. Why are they sitting in the comfort of their homes when most of us, who have been affected by floods, have come here?” Bashir Ahmad, an employee asked.
Residents of Balgarden and Karan Nagar areas said that water is not receding from their areas and around 20 houses have collapsed so far due to water logging. However, Fire and Emergency officials said that they have pressed four de-watering pumps into service in the area.
Jeelani Qadri, a resident of Balgarden, said that no official has visited the area since floods hit the area. “We were rescued by the locals and relief was provided initially by residents of adjacent area and now people from North Kashmir are doing relief work in our area”, he added.
In the meantime, the flood channel bank was cut at three places at Jawahar Nagar and Kursu to drain water from Jawahar Nagar, Rajbagh, Kursu, Gogjibagh and adjacent area. Water level is now slowly receding in these areas. However, residents say that it may take at least a week more for the water to recede fully.
And the first meeting of with the Engineers of various departments was held yesterday in which de-watering and restoring of various services was discussed.
One of the representatives from Public who was also present in the meeting said that the issue of de-watering was raised with the Government but a top official said that de-watering has to be done with the available resources as government has no money to purchase the pumps to de-water the inundated areas.
People in most of the flood affected areas complaint that the de-watering process is very slow and Government is mostly relying on Fire and Emergency Services Department to de-water the water logged areas.
As the waters recede more bodies are being recovered from flood hit areas. The Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Rohit Kansal, said that the death toll in Kashmir valley due to floods have risen to 54.
In the meantime Jammu and Kashmir Bank, a major banking player in State, has almost put its entire banking operations back on track in the Valley after 12 days of flooding and people have withdrawn Rs 107 crore.
Spokesman of the bank, Sajjad Bazaz told Excelsior that they have restored functioning of its 338 business units out of 379 business units located in Kashmir valley. “Besides, 203 out of 473 delivery points in the shape of automated teller machines (ATMs) have been made functional across the Valley”, he said.
Bazaz said that customers across Kashmir have withdrawn almost Rs 95 crores from these BUs and an amount of almost Rs 12 crores stands disbursed through these operational ATMs across the Valley.
“Pertinently, the business units made functional in the Valley post flood situation include BUs which are physically non-functional for being damaged or submerged in flood, but has been made functional from some other location. It is also noteworthy that customers of BUs which are not yet functional have been allowed transactions in their accounts and availing other banking services from any functional BU of the bank. The bank has waived off charges on such transactions”, said Bazaz.
Bazaz said the bank in association with Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company has opened counters at all its branches where customers can register their insurance claim by providing policy details. “In addition to this, Bajaj Allianz has opened helpdesk counters at four places at Rawalpora, Barzulla, near fire services headquarters and Nallamar Road, Srinagar”, he added.
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