Srinagar: Before floods struck various parts of Srinagar city on Sep 7th, areas of South Kashmir like Anantnag were already submerged and were bearing the brunt of the ferocity of river Jhelum. Since Srinagar is the capital of Jammu and Kashmir, the rescue and relief operations have almost remained focused on Srinagar, without much known about the devastation that the floods caused in South Kashmir. Residents say that not only the Govt officials, but even the civilian volunteers have not reached this flood affected part of the valley. The affected people have thus been left to fend for themselves, going without food, water and medicines for many days.
“I have lost everything. All my investments have gone. I am broke. Even my records and ledgers are gone. I can’t even recover my dues,” a hardware dealer, Mushtaq Dar told the Times of India. He said he desperately tried to retrieve whatever he could from the practically scrap in his shop and also stated that traders in the area have suffered losses worth Rs 20 lakh each.
The entire valley suffered on account of the telecommunication blackout for more than a week. Now that cellular networks have partly resumed working, some information is trickling out from South Kashmir as well. But most areas in the region still remain cut off from rest of the valley because of the damage caused to the roads. Anantnag, which is the biggest town in South Kashmir looks like a ghost town with fallen tress blocking the roads at many places. What compounds the problems here is the slush on the roads. Large parts of the town are stinking because of stagnant waters at various places. Essential items like food materials and medicine are in acute short supply.
The Srinagar-Anantnag highway is not open for traffic and anyone who wants to reach the town has to take a detour via Shopian which consumes a lot of time. Other areas in South Kashmir, like Kulgam also continue to remain cut off. South Kashmir, like Srinagar has suffered huge loses to property and people are finding it hard to cope with the grind of day to day life given acute shortage of essential items. It is time that the focus of relief centres be shifted to this much neglected area of the valley.
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