Civil Society Group Poses 15 Qs To Govt.

SRINAGAR:  Civil Society Forum Kashmir has said “refilling of the breaches with loose clay, by the Irrigation and Flood Control (IFC) Department is certainly going to put the population of Kashmir at the greater risk of another flood.

“We understand recent flood was a natural calamity which was catastrophic in nature but at the same time as far as pre-monitoring of the floods and post flood management is concerned there are many questions which department has to answer to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

During floods Forum preferred not to disturb the department at all, but there are many questions which people want to ask the flood control department.

1. Why did department ignore the warning of meteorology department on heavy rainfall? 

2: Why were flood monitoring committees not constituted for every village, as per past practice and if constituted, what action was taken by them to prevent inundation of areas?

3. Why were weak points of bunds not reinforced across the state and not even during the days of flood.  In particular Badamibagh Bund, Rajbagh , Kursu Rajbagh, Sonawar, Shivpora, Qamarwari and various other places?

4: Why were sand bags not made available. And if Deptt claims they issued 6 lakh sand bags to which areas were they issued?

5. Why did department not monitor the illegal constructions on the Bunds, including illegal govt constructions e.g. PHE lift scheme installation at Panthachowk, Railway line passing through Kandizal or Byepass road,  Lasjan etc?

6. Why did the IFC allow other departments to lay heavy pipes, drainage pipes, fibre optic cables etc on the bunds which weakened them thus making them vulnerable to breaches? 7: Why were low lying foot bridges allowed to be constructed on flood channel, which obstructed the flow of water?

8 How much has been spent on dredging of the river Jehlum in these five years in South Central and North Kashmir?

9: Why was the flood channel, not dredged. In case, dredging was done, how much was spent on it and why was the work stopped halfway?

10. When South Kashmir got flooded and HFL at all three levels broke all the earlier records, why did department not warn and forcefully evacuate people in vulnerable areas of central Kashmir and Srinagar? (Forceful evacuation is a important clause in flood management.)

11: What is the standard operating procedure (SOP) of IFC department at times of floods?

12: When South got flooded why were not any boats kept available and deployed in low lying areas of Srinagar?

13: Like in other states why wasn’t NDRF and army called out before the floods, and why wasn’t central Kashmir put on very high alert and forceful evacuation done, as is done in many parts of the country? (In Orissa a population of 10 lakh was forcefully evacuated ahead of last floods there). 

14. Why hasn’t IFC dept put in place an automatic guage monitoring system for measuring the rainfall and water level of river Jhelum?

15. IFC deptt has claimed that sudden surge in water level was due to an unknown cloud burst. Why is this statement not corroborated by the Met dept, which has denied that there was any cloud burst?

Forum with other organisations is planning to move a series of RTIs, both in central government as well as in state government and will also file a PIL in the High Court and if required in Supreme Court for establishing a high level enquiry committee to find out what all has been done during past five years and how department worked before, during and after floods.

Universities should be asked to study entire catchment area and flood prone areas of River jhelum from Pahalgam to Uri, the forum demanded.

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