Sham, Ajaz, Gurezi inspect restoration works in flood affected areas

Excelsior Correspondent

Minister for PHE, Sham Lal Sharma and Minister of State for Revenue, Ajaz Ahmad Khan interacting with people at Tral on Tuesday.

PULWAMA (TRAL), Aug 27: Minister for PHE, Irrigation & Flood Control, Sham Lal Sharma, accompanied by Minister of State for Revenue & Rehabilitation, Ajaz Ahmad Khan, Minister of State for Animal Husbandry, PHE, Irrigation & Flood Control, Nazir Ahmad Gurezi, MLA Tral, Mushtaq Ahmed Shah and MLC, B.A. Magray today conducted an extensive tour of flood affected areas of Tral and took stock of the restoration works on the damages caused due to recent rains and flash floods.
The Minister expressed satisfaction on the pace of progress of restoration works and directed the District Administration to further step up the efforts to restore the essential services like damaged road links, PHE and electricity services which were badly hit due to floods and rains. He also directed the concerned departments to work on war footing to provide relief to the affected people.
While interacting with the people at different places, Mr. Sham said that it is endeavor of the Government to respond quickly to the natural calamities in every part of the State and provide necessary relief to the affected people. He said that great damage has been occurred to the assets of Government and public due to natural calamities like, cloudbursts, earthquakes, flash floods and rains etc in different parts of the State and Government immediately swung into action and started immediate relief and rehabilitation measures.
He said at some places the loss has been assessed and in certain areas, the process of assessment is still on and after completion of entire process, the relief would be provided to the affected people. He asked the people to cooperate with the administration for ensuring expeditious restoration of damaged infrastructure.
Mr. Ajaz informed that the Government has already released an amount of Rs. 1.51 crore as first installment for restoration of public services and Rs. 1.43 crore for disbursement to the affected people whose assets have been damaged due to recent floods and rains in the Pulwama district after making proper assessment of loss by the revenue authorities. He assured to release the second installment at the earliest.
Prominent among those who also accompanied the Ministers included, Deputy Commissioner, Pulwama, Mr. Manzoor Ahmed Lone, DIG, Pulwama-Anantnag Range, Rajesh Kumar, Chief Engineer, PHE, A.M. Lanker, Chief Engineer, Irrigation & FC, Mir Javed Jaffer, senior Congress leaders, G.M.Mir, Farooq Andrabi, S. Surinder Singh Channi, Anwar Bhat and officers of various departments.