Relief OK, but don’t expect compensation: CS

Post flood scenario in JK

SRINAGAR: Government on Saturday said that it cannot pay full compensation to people for the losses they have suffered due to
the September’s devastating floods.
Chief Secretary, Muhammad Iqbal Khanday told KM that nowhere in the world any Government stands in a
position to compensate its people fully for the losses suffered
due to any natural calamity.

“I have been saying this from day one that nowhere in the
world, any Government is in a position to compensate people
fully for the losses suffered due to natural disasters,” he said.

He said that Government can only provide relief to the flood
affected people but people should not expect full compensation
from it. “Government’s best measure is to provide relief to the
flood affected people but if a person has suffered a loss of Rs
one crore due to the floods and expects Government will
provide him equal compensation, then he thinks wrong,”
Khanday told Kashmir Monitor.
He said, “As per the SDRF, Government has to pay a compensation of Rs 75, 000 to people who lost their homes due to the natural calamity. Instead of Rs 75,000 the state is urging the Central Government to pay at least Rs nine lakhs but it is the Central Government that has to take the final call.” he said.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had repeatedly said that Rs 75,000 was not the final figure for
compensation for houses but an interim relief based on the ceiling under SDRF norms. “Rs 75,000
is NOT the final figure for compensation for houses. I’ve said this countless times since the floods - it’s interim relief based on the ceiling under SDRF norms pending final package,” Omar had said.
According to the loss assessment report submitted by the Traders Rehabilitation Forum (TRF), an
amalgam of various Valley based trade bodies which was formulated post floods to Divisional
Commissioner’s Office, at least 7000 traders were affected by the flood.
The Chief Secretary regarding the loss to trade community said that they too should not expect full
compensation form the Government. “Government has decided to pay an ex-gratia relief to traders
in addition to which, the government was mulling to wave off their debt and to pay them easy
loans,” he said.
Earlier, Khanday during a press briefing had said that flood that hit Kashmir was a “disaster of
international magnitude” and the losses to properties and businesses were in excess of Rs 100,000
crore (one trillion). “It was not a disaster of national but of an international magnitude. Never
before has such a disaster struck Jammu and Kashmir,” Chief Secretary Muhammad Iqbal Khanday
told media. “The housing sector had an estimated damage to the tune of Rs 30000 crore and losses
in the business and a public sector are at Rs 70000 crore,” said Khanday.

Meanwhile, the traders have accused the state government for not properly assessing the loss
suffered due to the floods. “Nearly two months have passed since the floods but we haven’t yet
seen any official to come to our shop to assess the losses,” said a shopkeeper.

President of Kashmir Traders and Manufactures Federation, Muhammad Yasin Khan said that if the Central and State Governments were not in a position to compensate flood affected people of J&K,
then why didn’t they allow international aid to the state. “It is ironical that Government neither
compensates the flood victims nor allows the international aid to low in,” Khan told KM.