SRINAGAR: The devastating floods may have affected estimated one lakh families across Kashmir Valley even as the state government was still in the process of finding the extent of damage caused by the deluge.
According to official sources, initial assessment suggests around one lakh families may require an alternative shelter. Unlike all other districts, Srinagar will have final figures available only after the water levels permit the passage and assessment, a senior officer privy of the developments said.
The flood devastated Srinagar city may have more shelter-less people than expected. The governments initial assessment has ignored the reality that tens of thousands of professionals and employees were living in rented spaces within and outside the government and have merely survived with almost everything lost.
For tens of thousands of people from other districts serving private and government institutions in Srinagar, Rajbagh, Jawahar Nagar, Balgarden, Karan Nagar and Bemina belts were preferred areas where they lived in rented accommodations. They have suffered the same fate as their landlords.
This is the case with the government employees living in the government flats, or the Evacuees Property spaces or the private hotels. All these families are without any shelter right now and would require assistance to start their lives afresh.
A top government officer said while this larger reality was ignored in the basic assessment, the government will take a call on this during the final assessment.
The state government is likely to submit to the Centre by this weekend the memorandum of losses, estimated to be at least Rs 50,000 crore.
All the administrative departments have been asked to submit their loss assessment reports so that the same can be forwarded to the Union government in next couple of days, a senior state government official told a news agency.
The official said preliminary estimate of losses incurred to all sectors including private property and private businesses was at least Rs 50,000 crore.
“It can be higher than that also as some departments are still compiling data,” he said.
The official said the losses to agriculture sector were in excess of Rs 4,000 crore while horticulture sector has suffered losses to the tune of nearly Rs 2,000 crore.
“The damage to public infrastructure like roads, government buildings, bridges and hospitals is estimated at 7,000 crore,” he added.
The official said the damage in the private sector is much higher as for the first time the commercial hub of Lal Chowk, Budshah Chowk and surrounding areas have been hit by the floods.
“The losses are colossal for private businesses. There is not much that can be salvaged as the goods have remained submerged for more than 10 days,” he said.
Thousands of shops and other commercial outlets have been affected due to floods across the state, with Kashmir valley in general and Srinagar city in particular suffering maximum damage, he added.
The official said while nearly 2,34,000 houses have suffered varied degrees of damage, over 20,000 residential houses have been destroyed by the floods.
“These figures do not include the damages caused to residential houses in Srinagar district as many areas are still inundated. Conservative estimates are that Srinagar city has suffered as much damage as rest of the state,” he said.
Tourism officials said damage to the tourism infrastructure alone is at Rs 2,000 crore.
The healthcare sector has also suffered heavy losses due to the floods as several government run hospitals lost critical care and diagnostic equipment in the deluge that hit the state in the first week of September.
The state government has put the initial estimate of loss of the equipment at Rs 150 crore.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, during his recent meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had sought liberal rehabilitation and reconstruction package for the state in view of widespread damage caused by the floods.
The state government is also planning to seek relaxation in rules for providing cash relief to the victims of natural disasters.
Follow this link to join our WhatsApp group: Join Now
Be Part of Quality Journalism |
Quality journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce and despite all the hardships we still do it. Our reporters and editors are working overtime in Kashmir and beyond to cover what you care about, break big stories, and expose injustices that can change lives. Today more people are reading Kashmir Observer than ever, but only a handful are paying while advertising revenues are falling fast. |
| ACT NOW |
| MONTHLY | Rs 100 |  |
| YEARLY | Rs 1000 | |
| LIFETIME | Rs 10000 | |
