Ramban: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday said the devastation caused by flash floods and landslides triggered by heavy rain and cloudbursts in Ramban district could not be declared a “national disaster”, even as he assured adequate relief to the affected families.
Abdullah was speaking to reporters at Kela Morh, a few kilometres from the Ramban district headquarters along the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway. The highway was shut for the second consecutive day due to multiple landslides in the area.
The chief minister was supposed to visit the flood- and landslide-hit villages in Ramban town but had to return to Srinagar due to the approach road being washed away. He promised to tour the villages on Tuesday through the Jammu side.
Three persons, including two minor siblings, were killed and more than 100 people rescued after cloudburst-induced floods and landslides on Sunday caused massive damage to infrastructure, including roads and residential buildings.
Abdullah was scheduled to visit the calamity-affected areas but bad weather prevented helicopter operations. The chief minister travelled by road after he was informed that the Banihal sector of the national highway had been cleared, officials said.
Braving fresh rainfall, Abdullah reached Maroog around 5:30 pm and later walked towards the worst-hit Kela Morh to personally take stock of the situation, the officials said.
“This is not a national disaster but a localised one. It is a disaster and, accordingly, relief will be provided to the victims for rebuilding their lives,” Abdullah told reporters when asked if his government would approach the Centre for declaring the calamity as a “national disaster”.
He said the district administration had been directed to assess the damage and submit a detailed report.
“Immediate relief will be provided to the affected population. We will make arrangements on our own for a package and I will also talk to the Centre,” he said.
“If weather permits, I will personally take stock of the situation on the ground in other flood-hit areas of Ramban town and also chair a meeting of officers on Tuesday,” he added.
The chief minister, who walked nearly two kilometres over the damaged road and was briefed by Deputy Commissioner Baseer-ul-Haq Chaudhary and officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), said the national highway’s restoration was the top priority.
“A number of vehicles are buried under landslide debris. The road has also suffered extensive damage and we have to change its alignment. We have to remove the debris and clear the buried vehicles. The effort is to make the highway trafficable as soon as possible,” Abdullah said.
He said this stretch of the national highway was the most difficult and the officials were of the opinion that it would take two to three days to clear it while the remaining section would be cleared in the next 24 hours.
Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary visited the flood-affected areas on Sunday with Ramban MLA Arjun Singh Raju and Banihal MLA Sajad Shaheen on the directions of the chief minister, who was in Delhi at the time.
Abdullah reached Srinagar early on Monday and announced that he would visit Ramban later in the day.
Earlier, NHAI project director Purshottam Kumar said they were faced with a challenging situation due to massive deposits of muck on the national highway at more than a dozen places, especially on the four-kilometre stretch between Seri and Maroog.
“The height of the sludge at some places is more than 20 feet,” he said and added the highway was likely to take five to six days to reopen.
