KASHMIR DISASTER

Bikash Choudhury

Omar Abdulla, the young highly educated and intelligent Chief Minister of J & K in one of his television interaction said “we have informed the residents of Srinagar and other places to move to higher grounds and the same was done through Mosques  in all residential areas; however, people did not act on such advise”. This is simply stupidity of a chief minister to give an excuse like a failed sales man. Now, after watching a week of pain and agony of the residents of capital city of J&K; it can be said with authority that the young chief minister of J&K is not only incompetent but also very insensitive. At the least, he could have emulated the example of Odisha where a million people were shifted in just three days just before the super cyclone Phaline struck the Odisha coast in October last year. It requires simple arithmetic to understand and realize that Srinagar City could be swamped by flood if it rains with the intensity that it had recently (280mm of rains in three days) knowing the topography of the city. While writing this piece it brings sadness knowing that still 3-5 lakhs of people are yet to be evacuated from their flooded homes as they mostly live without food, water, electricity and communication facility for over an week. In a disaster like this we could have deployed our navy in greater numbers and could have sourced 10,000-20,000 mechanized boats from all across the World to evacuate people from their homes, deployed Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to restore the communication networks, Prefab Buildings for Shelters and used sophisticated Project Management Techniques backed by IT services to provide World class relief & rehabilitation services for marooned people of Srinagar City and other affected parts of J&K State. This could have been done provided the State Govt. would have a competent leader as its chief minister. God gave a great opportunity to Omar Abdulla to display his administrative and leadership skill; however, sadly he failed miserably in both counts. He should hang his head in shame for failing his own people and heaping miseries in their lives. It is feared that Omar could actually be lynched by mob if he ventures out to campaign for his party in the upcoming State election.

The frequency and ferocity with which natural disasters are happening in our country; it is about time to invite our private sector to offer Disaster Mitigation Services with art & science of technology & management at a price as the civil administration failed to rise to the occasion again and again. Today a prayer should be in our lips to keep our brothers and sisters of J&K safe & sound and hale and hearty as our turn could be the next.         

#Flat No: 105, Kalpatru Nivas Apartment, Swarnapuri Road, Patia, Bhubaneswar-751024

Mob: 9853426657 E-Mail: streben.marke@gmail.com Twitter: @ ideasofhope