A year after Kashmir floods, victims still wait for rehabilitation

Srinagar, Sept 6: A year after floods devastated parts of Kashmir, the victims of the natural calamity feel that governments at the Centre and in the state have done "precious little" for rehabilitating them.

"We are talking one year down the line and all we have got peanuts in the name of relief and rehabilitation," 75-year-old Ghulam Mohammad Bhat told PTI.

Bhat's three-storey house in Jawahar Nagar area of the city collapsed in the flood that struck Kashmir and some parts of Jammu in the first week of September last year.

He and his family were lucky to leave their home minutes before the tragedy struck.

"We saw our house collapse in front of our eyes as we took refuge in the third storey of neighbour's house. Everything was gone and we managed to just escape with our lives only," Bhat's wife, Nabla Begum, said.

We were expecting large hearted approach from the Centre, said some victims

The elderly couple are still putting up with their relatives in uptown Rawalpora locality as the Rs 78,800 given to them by the government as compensation was not even enough to get the debris of their collapsed house cleared.

"We were expecting large hearted approach from the Centre for rehabilitating the flood victims but even after one year, they have not taken a decision on the relief package for the state," Bhat said.

Some of the victims have also alleged malpractices by the lower ranking staff of the Revenue Department, who prepared the loss assessment report following the floods last year.

They alleged that bribes and close connections with politicians ensure that some people got the first instalment of relief more than once.

"There is one case in our locality where a man had got Rs 50,000 compensation four times in four different bank accounts using different variations of his name," Ali Mohammad, a resident of Natipora, said.

PTI