Published On:Tuesday, 14 October 2014
SOPs were not followed during floods
SRINAGAR: Senior minister in the Omar Abdullah led cabinet, Taj Mohiuddin Monday blamed the State and the Central government for their failure in dealing with the floods that hit Jammu and Kashmir in the month of September.
“The officials did not follow the Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) during the floods. The patrolling of bunds was not done. Government has to take the action against those officials for not following the SOP that led the situation from bad to the worse,” Minister for Health and Medical Education Taj Mohiuddin told The Kashmir Monitor.
He said he will raise this issue with the cabinet and will seek action against those officials. “Right now we are busy in rehabilitating the people. This could be done later on.”
However, he didn’t blame the Irrigation and Flood Control Minister Sham Lal Sharma over this issue. “The officials of the department are responsible for it not the minister who is not the expert of that field. It was the officials like engineers of the department, who have to follow SOP, which they had not done,” he said.
Taj Mohiddin was earlier the Minister for Irrigation and Flood Control before he was given the Health and Medical Education portfolio.
The devastating floods hit the State in the month of September, which left around 300 people dead and rendered thousands of people homeless.
Taj Mohiuddin, who is a senior Congress leader, also blamed his own party saying that , when Congress led UPA was in power at the Centre it also did not take the necessary measures that could have prevented the devastation to a large extent .
“I was concerned about it when I was the Irrigation and Flood Control Minister that a flood was imminent in the next few years due to the history of floods. I had even predicted in February 2012 that this kind of flood would hit the State very soon. We had submitted the proposal of Rs 2250 crore with the Central government for dredging the Jhelum but they gave only Rs 97 crore and the project got delayed due to non-availability of the funds. Had the Central government released the funds, the flood threat that was looming over these years could have been evaded. The current Central government is too not serious over this issue,” he said.
He said the floods did not hit the Sopore town in north Kashmir where the dredging of Jhelum had been done earlier.
He said several buildings have been built in a brazen violation of the rules and norms. “The flood channels have been blocked due to construction of buildings like SDA in Bemina and it was the reason that Bone and Joint Hospital in Barazulla got submerged in floods. It was the mistake on part of the government for allowing construction of buildings on the flood channels.”
He said the extraction of sand from the Jhelum through machines had weakened the bunds and their repairing had not been done resulting the Srinagar got submerged in the recent floods.
“The officials did not follow the Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) during the floods. The patrolling of bunds was not done. Government has to take the action against those officials for not following the SOP that led the situation from bad to the worse,” Minister for Health and Medical Education Taj Mohiuddin told The Kashmir Monitor.
He said he will raise this issue with the cabinet and will seek action against those officials. “Right now we are busy in rehabilitating the people. This could be done later on.”
However, he didn’t blame the Irrigation and Flood Control Minister Sham Lal Sharma over this issue. “The officials of the department are responsible for it not the minister who is not the expert of that field. It was the officials like engineers of the department, who have to follow SOP, which they had not done,” he said.
Taj Mohiddin was earlier the Minister for Irrigation and Flood Control before he was given the Health and Medical Education portfolio.
The devastating floods hit the State in the month of September, which left around 300 people dead and rendered thousands of people homeless.
Taj Mohiuddin, who is a senior Congress leader, also blamed his own party saying that , when Congress led UPA was in power at the Centre it also did not take the necessary measures that could have prevented the devastation to a large extent .
“I was concerned about it when I was the Irrigation and Flood Control Minister that a flood was imminent in the next few years due to the history of floods. I had even predicted in February 2012 that this kind of flood would hit the State very soon. We had submitted the proposal of Rs 2250 crore with the Central government for dredging the Jhelum but they gave only Rs 97 crore and the project got delayed due to non-availability of the funds. Had the Central government released the funds, the flood threat that was looming over these years could have been evaded. The current Central government is too not serious over this issue,” he said.
He said the floods did not hit the Sopore town in north Kashmir where the dredging of Jhelum had been done earlier.
He said several buildings have been built in a brazen violation of the rules and norms. “The flood channels have been blocked due to construction of buildings like SDA in Bemina and it was the reason that Bone and Joint Hospital in Barazulla got submerged in floods. It was the mistake on part of the government for allowing construction of buildings on the flood channels.”
He said the extraction of sand from the Jhelum through machines had weakened the bunds and their repairing had not been done resulting the Srinagar got submerged in the recent floods.
