J&K Government’s unwillingness to perform even when all pre-requisites for performance are available is simply regrettable. If the matter is of great urgency involving the lives of millions of people, lack of performance is unjustifiable at any cost. It is shocking to know that even after the ravaging floods of 2014, the State Government is not seriously concerned to implement such protective measures as would secure the State and its cities and towns from devastating floods. Damages caused by those floods were not small in dimension and any sensitive regime would not have rested a single day unless it had made foolproof protection against recurrence of such catastrophes.
In the aftermath of 2014 devastating floods the State and the Central Governments both entered into consultations on the issue of taking long time measures to prevent recurrence of floods. Some study was made and everything boiled down to the funding of mega projects. The Central Government approached the World Bank for funding Jhelum and Tawi Flood Recovery Project, which was approved over one year back. Functionaries of the World Bank including their technical teams paid several visits to the sites in Kashmir and Jammu and after prolonged discussion, an agreement between the Union Government and World Bank was signed sanctioning 250 Million US Dollar credit in January 2016. This signing of agreement received media hype and people were jubilant that now a mega scheme would be implemented that is going to save their lands, houses and other properties from devastating floods as had happened during September 2014.
This project comprises seven components and it was agreed that the State Government would prepare Detailed Project Reports on all the seven components so that the executing agencies would be told with full clarity the nature of task they were expected to perform. The World Bank even provided the outline of DPRs which the executing agency would have to adhere to at any cost. We are sad to say that despite a year gone by when the project was approved, till date nothing by way of DPRs has been drawn by the authorities. This reveals how casually the Government is taking the floods of 2014 and how much callous it is towards the threats of recurring floods that loom large on the State. This week we had rains in the Valley and snow on the mountains and the waters of Jhelum had begun to enter civil lines. It was sheer freak of chance and munificence of the nature that rains stopped soon and the flooded rivers and tributaries began to return to normal level. One fails to understand the mentality of those at the helm of affairs about urgent and even emergency matters confronting the State. The World Bank had set 25 years as the period by which the loans would be returned and also was prepared to extend the time limit by another five years. The irony is that the managers of the project categorically say that they are not in a position to say when the work will begin. Such is the shroud of uncertainty hanging over the entire scheme. Ever since September 2014 when the floods came in the State, the State authorities have been complaining that the Centre did not release the promised funds and the flood victims couldnot be provided with succor. The question should not come to an end with complaints like these. The point is not whether the Centre released the funds in time or not; the point is whether the State Government has been seriously thinking of doing all it can to prevent recurrence of floods and the losses thereof to the lives and livestock and properties. Leave aside preparing of DPRs even morphology of the two rivers namely Jhelum and Tawi has not been conducted knowing well that such a study is crucial to any protective policy to be undertaken by the Government.
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