8 Sep 2014, Mother Nature showed its wrath in the valley of Kashmir, by now already having claimed some 450 human lives and loss to property worth thousands of crores. The relief in all forms is pouring from all over the country and from many different parts of the world too but the ground situation for now is devastating and hard to handle, at least in the way state government has so far approached to the fury. PM, Narendra Modi on his visit to the Srinagar city called the floods a national disaster and also announced a one thousand crore rupee relief. Others followed.
A flood of this magnitude was predicted in 2010. Flood Control department in Kashmir had sought immediate assistance from the government for necessary infrastructure. 22000 crore project was formulated to put the infrastructure on place but successive governments slept over the issue.
Apart from such neglect, many other factors are responsible for the present humanitarian crisis, mainly the unmindful construction of railways and highways. Such constructions have caused huge depressions, turning Srinagar city into a bowl shape. The new four lane highway project which is under construction since past 6 years has chocked all traditional sewage system thus blocking all outlets. The railway line stretch which runs across the valley has been constructed by razing down most of the hillocks turning the line into a steady embankment which keeps the level of surface water static. Also the residential colonies which have come up around major wetlands have a massive contribution in creating such an alarming situation. Raj Bagh and Jawahar Nagar which are colonies built in and around the wet land are the major sufferers in the Srinagar city and to face the brunt.
The floods are the worst in the last 55 years. Communication in such situations plays an important role in reaching to people, to connect and to communicate to save human lives but the floods in the valley hit the communication bad, real bad. Though the network service providers in the valley tried working day- night to resume the services but sadly they somehow worked only after 5 days of shutdown. It was too late to offer free calling services to its customers by almost all service providers as not reaching to those trapped in floods couldn’t be reached also because of hardly any phones working.
Journalism yet again was the causality amongst the floods that created havoc in the valley. In a place like Kashmir which is always seen to be volatile and where army isn’t among favorites for obvious reasons, the national media reported heroics after heroic rescue by the Indian Army and the National Disaster Response Force (which had its 300 rescuers in the flood affected areas) while as the reports from the ground are way different and parallel to what is being shown on the National TV and written in newspapers. The reports from the ground are of people in frustration and slow and meager rescue efforts. Many foreign dailies carried reports of Army giving priority to rescuing the tourists stuck in the flood affected areas and leaving the locals on their own. Newspapers from the state are lately carrying reports of local volunteers coming forward in helping saving the human lives, as many as possible.
It is unfortunate that in this moment of tragic and tragedy Media in the country is trying to portray the Army in the valley in good light. This is no time for image makeover but genuine reporting and genuine efforts to be made to help make the state rise again.
May the gone rest in peace and the living recover and rise.
