Centre delayed rehabilitation of flood-hit in Valley: Omar

Jammu, Mar 30: With Kashmir Valley facing fresh floods, former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday asked the Centre what steps it was taking to help the state even as he accused the Narendra Modi government of delaying rehabilitation of the those hit by last year's deluge.

The NC leader said people should not play politics over the flood situation and work to save the lives of the people.

"We don't want to play politics on the situation. It has been only seven months and once again the people are face to face with another tragedy," he told reporters.

Later while speaking in the state legislative Assembly, Omar wanted to know what steps have been taken by the government to safeguard the life and property of the people who face another flood-like situation in the state.

He also wanted to know what the Centre was doing to help the state. "This is a must to give some sort of satisfaction to the people," he said.

He also accused the Centre of delaying release of relief package for the flood-hit people of Jammu and Kashmir The former Chief Minister said the central government cannot escape responsibility as his government had sought to delay the elections and take care of the rehabilitation of the flood-hit people first.

"We had told them to first take care of rehabilitation of the flood-hit people but they went ahead with the elections first that hampered the rehabilitation work," he said.

However, he said the situation was not that worst in the state this time following the incessant rains and hoped the weather would improve. He said the weather department has predicted that the weather would continue to remain bad in the next few days.

Seeking information from the government, he said so far the information people have got was either from the Internet or newspapers.

"We come to know through newspapers and Internet, just want to know if it is true that NDRF team has reached Kashmir and whether dewatering pumps have been pressed into service" he said.

He also wanted to know the situation in hospitals as in the last floods most of the hospitals in the Kashmir Valley were left defunct.

PTI