Dr Jitendra visits Kishtwar disaster site, lauds integrated efforts of government, people
STATE TIMES NEWS
CHOSITI: Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh on Saturday visited the cloudburst disaster site in Chositi of district Kishtwar. He lauded the integrated joint efforts of the government and the people in carrying out the rescue and the relief operation.
Earlier, Dr. Jitendra Singh had tried to reach the site in an Air Force Helicopter but when the air sortie got suspended because of the inclement weather, he took the road route and could reach the exact site only by midnight. “After a long tedious uphill drive, managed to reach the site of cloudburst disaster in Chositi, Kishtwar…. very late around midnight”, Dr. Jitendra tweeted past midnight”.
The Minister was received at the site by Lop J&K Assembly Sunil Sharma and senior officers of administration, including Director General of Police Jammu & Kashmir, Nalin Parabhat, Divisional Commissioner Jammu Ramesh Kumar, DIG Sridhar Patil, senior officers of the Kishtwar District Administration. They took him around the site and also explained to him the enormity of the damage caused.
Later, talking to media persons on the spot, Dr. Jitendra said, he deeply appreciated the courageous efforts of the military, Paramilitary forces, J&K Police, and the administration, who have left no stone unturned in doing whatever best they could do in this precarious situation, marked by natural calamity coupled with natural constraints of difficult hilly terrain, inadequate connectivity and inclement weather.
Dr. Jitendra said, equal appreciation is also due to the local residents, who were the first to swing into action when everyone was taken by surprise by a massive fatal cloudburst on the afternoon of 14th August.
When asked about the support being provided by the government, Dr. Jitendra said, “what can be more reassuring than the thought that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is personally monitoring the situation”. He said, Prime Minister Modi immediately tweeted and then held a review meeting. Later, he has been in touch both with the Chief Minister as well as the Lieutenant Governor.
The Minister said that all help is being provided to the affected area in spite of the constraints of weather and situation not allowing air flights to operate. He informed that for the last two days, two helicopters carrying necessary equipment are stationed at Udhampur waiting for the weather to improve.
However, he appreciated the efforts of the SDRF, the NDRF, the Paramilitary, the Air Force and the Army for having transported all the necessary equipment overnight in vehicles by road.
He said, when a suggestion came that BRO equipment was required to clear the debris through the equipment used in the road construction, that too has been made available from today.
Dr. Jitendra said, as the elected local Member of Parliament from this area was also particularly pained, because before 2014, this holy place carrying Machail Yatra was fully neglected and it was only after Prime Minister Modi came that our request was accepted to provide basic amenities over here. He recalled that only in the last 10 years, this area got road connectivity, mobile towers, electricity, drinking water, toilets, etc. In fact, one new bridge which had been recently constructed, also got washed away in the floods.
When asked about the casualties, the Minister said that officially, the figure that can be given is 53 because these are the dead bodies which we have actually been found from the debris. But at the same time, he hastened to add that it is scary to predict how many more may be lying buried under the debris and how many might have got washed away in the rapidly flowing waters within those 15 deadly seconds.
