Amit Shah visits flood-hit J&K to assess damage, review relief efforts

The Narendra Modi government is committed to ensuring the rehabilitation of those affected by recent floods in Jammu and Kashmir, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Monday, as he undertook a tour of a worst-hit area here.

Shah visited Manguchak village near the Jammu airport and was accompanied by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Leader of Opposition in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Sunil Sharma and other senior BJP leaders, including the party’s Jammu and Kashmir unit chief, Sat Sharma.

The home minister arrived in Jammu on Sunday night to assess the flood situation and the relief efforts.

After meeting visitors at the Raj Bhawan, Shah left for Manguchak, one of the worst-hit villages, for a first-hand account of the situation. He interacted with the villagers and assured them of proper relief and rehabilitation, officials said.

“Today, visited Chak Mangu (Manguchak), a village affected by the recent floods in Jammu. Relief and rescue operations are being carried out in full swing by disaster response forces, along with providing assistance in medical care to the affected people. The Modi govt is committed to taking adequate measures for the rehabilitation of the affected people,” Shah said in a post on X.

Earlier, the home minister stopped on the Tawi bridge, near Bikram Chowk, and inspected the damage along the riverbanks. He was briefed by Jammu Divisional Commissioner Ramesh Kumar and other senior officers.

“The home minister visited my house and assured me of relief.... There is nothing left in the house after last week’s deluge,” Bhan Singh, a resident of Manguchak, told PTI.

He said he has never witnessed such a flood in his life. “It damaged all household goods like refrigerators, air-conditioners and even clothes,” he added.

Another resident, Chain Dass, said he was lucky to survive the deluge, which submerged the entire village. “We are happy that the home minister visited us and took stock of the situation,” he said, hoping that authorities will drain the water and take steps to ensure that such a flood never recurs.

He claimed that the village got flooded due to the construction of a circular road.

After conducting the tour, Shah returned to the Raj Bhawan and chaired three back-to-back meetings attended by Sinha, Abdullah, Sharma, Director General of Police (DGP) Nalin Prabhat and several officials of the Centre and the Union Territory administration on the floods and relief efforts.

He held another meeting that was attended by senior Army, police, paramilitary and Intelligence officers, discussing the border security grid, which was also impacted by the flash floods, and the prevailing security situation, the officials said, adding that there was another meeting with BJP legislators.

More than 130 people have been killed and 33 have gone missing in cloudbursts, landslides and flash floods in Kishtwar, Kathua, Reasi and Ramban districts of Jammu and Kashmir since August 14.

The deceased include 34 pilgrims who were hit by a landslide en route to the Vaishno Devi shrine on August 26.

Record rainfall on August 26-27 caused flash floods in low-lying areas in Jammu and other plains, causing heavy damage to infrastructure.

Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed an unprecedented monsoon onslaught, with Jammu logging 380 mm of rainfall in a 24-hour period ending at 8.30 am on Wednesday, the highest ever recorded in the city since 1910, when the observatory was set up.

Udhampur received the highest recorded rainfall of 630 mm for the same 24-hour period, surpassing the earlier highest of 342 mm on July 31, 2019, a spokesperson of the meteorological department said.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh visited Jammu on August 24 to take stock of the situation following cloudburst-triggered flash floods in Kishtwar district’s Chisoti village. Singh’s plan to visit the devastated village, on the way to the Machail Mata shrine, was scuppered by inclement weather and the blocking of a road by a fresh landslide in Paddar subdivision.

Sixty-five people, mostly pilgrims, were killed, more than 100 were injured and 32 went missing after the Chisoti flash floods on August 14.