Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, May 17: The Centre has decided to conduct an extensive study of September 2014 worst ever floods in Jammu and Kashmir including the reasons that led to the devastating floods taking over 300 lives and rendered thousands of people shelterless besides causing extensive damage to infrastructure and measures required to be taken to prevent them in future with Monsoon just a little over month away.
The study will be conducted by high level Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) during its six days visit to all three regions of the State beginning May 24 from Srinagar, which was worst affected by the flood and accounted alone for nearly 200 deaths apart from huge destruction. The 22 members Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forests comprised 22 members of Parliament and is headed by Ashwani Kumar, former Union Minister, as its Chairman.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the Committee would visit all three regions including Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh and also pay brief visit to neighbouring Pathankot district of Punjab to carry out extensive study on the factors that caused death and destruction in worst ever floods in Jammu and Kashmir in September 2014, steps taken by the Government so far to prevent recurrence of the floods and more initiatives required to ensure that such natural tragedies were averted in future.
The Parliamentary Commi-ttee will report to Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice President Dr Hamid Ansari and Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, who, in turn, will forward their report to the Government of India for taking necessary measures to check floods in Jammu and Kashmir, which had completely paralyzed the State for nearly a fortnight prompting the Centre to carry out biggest ever operation through Defence forces to rescue the people.
Sources said the Committee will hear various stakeholders on the subjects of unprecedented floods and failure of system of Warning and Forecasting of floods in Srinagar and pollution related issues. It would discuss with officials as to how such devastating floods couldn’t be predicted well in time so that the people could be asked to leave their houses to survive and put in place a system to ensure that the people were forewarned in future to save their lives and property in the event of impending floods.
The Committee was likely to meet Governor NN Vohra, Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control Minister Sukhnandan Kumar, Chief Secretary Mohammad Iqbal Khandey, other top officers of civil and police administration, Metrological department and all other officers concerned with taking measures to prevent floods.
Sources said the Parliamentary Panel will undertake study on unprecedented floods in Srinagar and failure of system of Warning and Forecasting of Floods in the context of Climate Change in Srinagar from May 24 to 26. Apart from capital City of Srinagar, the Panel will also visit other parts of the Kashmir valley.
It would study the problems arising out of pollution, climate change and urbanization in Leh on May 27 and 28. Though Leh and Kargil districts in Ladakh had remained unaffected by the September 2014 floods, cloudbursts had caused extensive damage in Leh in 2010 killing 255 people including six foreign tourists and causing extensive damage to life and property.
“Problem of pollution in Tier-II cities of Jammu and Kashmir in general and Jammu in particular will be discussed by the Parliamentary Panel in Jammu on May 29. The same evening, the Committee will study similar problems in neighbouring Pathankot district of Punjab before winding up its visit and returning to New Delhi,’’ sources said.
Sources said the Government of India and the State Government were concerned over reasons that led to worst ever floods in most parts of Jammu and Kashmir in September 2014 taking toll of several lives and causing huge devastation of property running into thousands of crores. With Monsoon just a little over month away, the Centre wants to take preemptive measures well in advance to ensure that the floods were not repeated in heavy rains leading to another September 2014.
The Parliamentary Committee visiting Jammu and Kashmir comprised Ashwani Kumar (Chairman), Badruddin Ajmal, Muzaffar Hussain Baig, Chirag Paswan, Bijoya Chakrovorty, Pankaj Choudhary, Prabhatsingh Pratapsinh Chouhan, Sushmita Dev, Ninong Ering, Laxman Giluwa, K Gopal, Daddan Mishra, Shivaji Adhlrao Patil, Anil Madhav Dave, Prem Chand Gupta, CP Narayanan, Paul Manoj Pandian, T Subbarami Reddy, Arvind Kumar Singh, Bhupinder Singh, Bimla Kashyap Sood and Ronald Sapu Tlau. All of them are members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
MK Khan, Joint Secretary, Rajya Sabha Secretariat will also accompany the Parliamentary Committee.
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