Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, Jan 6: Expressing its total solidarity with the flood and land slide victims of J&K, the Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) on Home Affairs has asked the Union Government not to shrug off its responsibility in rebuilding the State by taking the plea that the activities concerning the long term rehabilitation programme fall within the jurisdiction of the State Government.
In its report the 31 member Committee has urged the Central Government to extend all support to the State Government during the time of unprecedented crisis. The Committee was of the view that the J&K being a strategic and sensitive State , it needs to be rebuilt without any preconditions and Central Government should extend the requisite financial assistance to the State Government in this regard.
The Committee therefore suggested that there should be a comprehensive plan with sufficient funds to rebuild the State, its economy and infrastructure. Maintaining that rebuilding the economy of the State is a great challenge for both the State and Central Governments, the Committee urged both the Governments to pay sufficient attention to the same for rebuilding the economy of the State within a set time frame.
The Committee was of the view that in order to provide succor to the flood and landslide victims of the State and in rebuilding the State both Central and State Governments should work in tandem. It strongly recommended that for the rehabilitation of affected people, reconstruction of the infrastructure along with revival of economy in the State should be taken up on utmost priority.
Stressing the early rehabilitation of the victims and putting the economy of the State on right path to restore the confidence of the people, the Committee recommended that the Government should undertake the assessment of loss of assets and prepare a comprehensive rehabilitation and reconstruction plan.
Not satisfied with the compensation amount given to victims, the Committee termed it “very low” because the guidelines regarding the compensation amount etc were framed in 2001. The Committee observed that the unprecedented flood situation in the State led to collapse of the entire economy and immediate steps required to be taken to help the people who have lost their business.
Maintaining that population has increased to a considerable rate since 2001, the Committee suggested that census of 2011 be made basis for executing the long term rehabilitation plan. It further urged the Government to take into consideration the concerns of the people whose buildings are in dilapidated condition while sanctioning the relief as these people have apprehension that these buildings will collapse at any time.
Among the other recommendations made by the Committee it urged the State Government that the rehabilitation plan should also take into account the compensation for the loss of cattle during floods in the State and preparation of action plan for uncultivated land in order to enable farmers to sow the crops without losing the cropping cycle.
While recommending that the State Government should provide training to the personnel for better disaster management, the Committee noted with the concern that despite having an early warning about the floods the State had not enough satellite phones available which resulted into breakdown of communication system with the result there was no way to communicate with the officials at district level. Besides the personnel available with the State Government were not trained making them incapable to mobilize resources sufficiently in advance.
Passing strictures against the State Government, the Committee also observed that despite receiving forewarning that State would receive heavier rainfall than the normal rain but the preemptive measures taken by it were not sufficient to withstand the fury on the nature and result was heavy casualties in terms of human loss.
It also suggested for comprehensive national planning with resilient system for better disaster management. The Committee observed that the States like J&K are not well prepared to combat natural disasters and such States caught on sleeping mode at the time of disaster so training and updating of the Government machinery should be on continuous basis and it should always be on alert mode.
It urged the Government to plug all the loopholes so that the relief reaches to the deserving people in length and breadth of the State. It also recommended that the funds provided by the Union Government for relief and rehabilitation must be utilized under close supervision and monitoring.
The Committee, while reprimanding the State Government for maintaining silence over the encroachment of rivers suggested it to bring into force building bye laws keeping in view the topology of the State so that the encroachments on river banks are avoided.
It stressed on dredging proposals of rivers submitted by the State Governments particularly flood prone States be cleared at the earliest, monitoring by Central Government meant for clearing drains and rivers, implementation of recommendation of study groups under Ministry of Water Resources, setting up of expert groups, framing of special action plan for tourism and better functioning of disaster management machinery at the National and State level.
Follow our WhatsApp channel