Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 15: Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz has strongly criticized the Central Government for not providing relief to the flood victims of Kashmir.
In a press statement issued here today, Prof Soz said that floods had been described by many credible agencies as the worst ever in Kashmir history. It is true that Mr Modi visited Kashmir when the floods occurred and made eloquent statements but nothing more has happened all these nine months. The then State Government estimated the requirement of relief to the tune of Rs 44,000 crores and the new Government also adopted that figure and has been trying to obtain relief.
Many Central Government agencies visited the flood affected areas independently and found that the Kashmiris had suffered immense losses and miseries. During the floods the people of Kashmir had appreciated the efforts of the Army, Central Disaster Management Force and other institutions. So grudging is the response of Central Govt. to Kashmir situation that even Rs 700 crores of the total amount of Rs 1500 crores released for construction of hospital buildings have been linked to Adhaar cards.
The people of Kashmir are puzzled to see the contrast between the attitude of the UPA to the flash floods of Uttrakhand and the attitude of Modi Govt towards the victims of September, 2014 floods in Kashmir. Even the Central Govt agencies had found that Uttrakhand was a difficult situation but not equal in size and effect to the devastative floods in Kashmir.
Prof Soz said the UPA Govt had accepted the total demands of Uttrakhand Govt for Rs 12,000 crores and it had released Rs 8000 crores within a month. The assurance for releasing Rs 4000 crores more was also there, but the Govt changed. Modi Govt didn’t allow International Development and Aid Agencies such as Oxfam; Islamic Relief World Wide; Save the Children; US Aid; Christian Aid; Action Aid and others were not allowed to organize distribution of relief in Kashmir.
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