It has become necessary that all the entities in position to help the flood affected people should come forward and do the needful at this hour of crisis because a huge section of population has lost the means of livelihood besides their houses and other properties. The situation of public infrastructure is also in doldrums with many vital bridges being washed away and several others becoming unfit for allowing traffic.
The impact of cloudbursts and flash floods witnessed in the last few days have affected both rural and urban centres with equal intensity and therefore restoring normal life across the region will require a lot of manpower and financial aid.
It is intriguing that centre has remained passive in announcing any relief package for the Union Territory at these testing times that too when leaders of various political parties cutting across their party lines have demanded the same.
In this context, Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to grant double the Rs 80,000 crore package announced after the 2014 floods in Kashmir, to the Jammu region.
According to his assessment, this is the worst catastrophe in 100 years that Jammu has faced, resulting in widespread destruction. The impact of the deluge is so devastating that thousands of kanals of land in villages have been destroyed, people have lost their cattle and even their homes and in places across the region, people have no food to eat, no drinking water, and no electricity, and therefore adequate relief package is the need of the hour.
One can gauge the situation by the fact that the leadership of the party in power in the centre has also raised the voice to announce a relief package for Jammu.
Reportedly, senior BJP leader and former minister Bali Bhagat has demanded a relief package to restore normal life, which was disrupted due to floods and cloudbursts. There is no doubt in the fact that organizations and departments are doing their best to help the affected people like the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has ordered its Judges, officers and staff to contribute towards the relief fund of the Government of J&K.
Considering the losses, people like film stars and big industrialists should also come forward to help the people in need taking a cue from famous actor and singer Satinder Sartaj, who has donated ration for 500 flood affected families in Punjab.
All said and done, the union Government is bound to help the people in Jammu region, which is reeling under difficult crisis with people left with no other place to seek refuge or relief but to look at the helmsmen running the affairs of the country.
