SRI NAGAR: The Centre on Friday sent two separate teams to Jammu and Kashmir on a fact-finding mission for assessing the devastation caused by the recent deluge. Apparently, the BJP-NDA Government has totally overlooked the damage assessment report prepared by Jammu and Kashmir Government.
Omar Abdullah-led National Conference-Congress Government had put the extent of the damage caused by the floods at `44,000 crore. And it had sought Central aid for relief and rehabilitation of flood victims and rebuilding the damaged infrastructure. The state government officials had first put the losses at Rs 1,00,000 crore.
Confirming the Centre’s move to carry out its own assessment of the losses suffered by J&K, sources said the Modi Govt has formed two teams by picking officials from different Central departments.
“The teams would visit different regions separately to take stock of the situation and assess the damage. They will then submit a report to the Ministry of Home Affairs, suggesting measures needed to rebuild parts of the state devastated by the floods,” the sources said.
The team headed by Joint Secretary, Home Affairs, Gopal Anand and Revenue Secretary Vinod Koul visited Anantnag, Pulwama and Kulgam districts in Southern Kashmir to take stock of the damages to the infrastructure. It toured the flood-affected villages and also assessed the damage suffered by both private and public property.
“About 161 water schemes in the district were damaged, but 159 of them have been restored. In the agriculture sector, crops on 3,21,000 hectares of land were destroyed, while 81 hectares were washed away in the floods. Also, 84 schemes of Irrigation Department were hit,” they said.
Another team, comprising Director, Monitoring and Appraisal, Central Water Commission, Vivek Tripathi and Joint Director of Directorate of Wheat Development Narender Kumar, surveyed the areas in the neighbouring districts to study the havoc caused by the floods and the progress made in the restoration work.