Amit Shah tours flood-affected areas in Jammu, assures victims of relief

Jammu: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday toured the flood-hit Jammu and assured some of the victims he met of relief and rehabilitation.

Shah was accompanied by Lt Governor Manoj Sinha, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and Leader of Opposition in the J-K Assembly Sunil Sharma, and was briefed by divisional commissioner, Jammu Ramesh Kumar and other senior officers, officials said.

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

After meeting visitors at Raj Bhavan, he left for Mangu Chak, one of the worst-hit villages near Jammu Airport, for a first-hand account of the situation.

He interacted with the villagers and assured them proper relief and rehabilitation, officials said.

Shah also stopped on the Tawi bridge near Bikram Chowk and inspected the damage along the riverbanks.

"The home minister visited my home and assured relief...there is nothing left in my house after last week's deluge," Bhan Singh, a resident of Mangu Chak, told PTI.

A middle-aged Singh said he had never witnessed such a flood in his life. "It damaged all household goods like fridges, air conditioners and even clothes." Another resident, Chain Dass, said he was lucky to survive the deluge, which submerged the entire village.

"We are happy the home minister visited us and took stock of the situation," he said, hoping the authorities will drain the water, and take steps such a flood never recurs.

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

After conducting the tour, Shah returned to Raj Bhawan to chair a meeting attended by Sinha, Abdullah, Sharma, the DGP of police, and several officials of the Centre and the Union Territory administration.

Shah will also review the damage caused to the border security grid by the flash floods, officials said.

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 since August 14.

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

Record rainfall during 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 24 hours ending 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.

This is the home minister's second visit to Jammu in three months.

Before this, he had visited the district on May 29, nearly three weeks after the Indian armed forces carried out missile strikes on terror infrastructure across the border in reprisal to the April 22 Pahalgam attack in which terrorists killed 26 people, mostly tourists.

On August 24, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh visited Jammu to take stock of the situation following flash floods triggered by a cloudburst in Chisoti village in Kishtwar district.

Singh's plan to visit the devastated village, on the way to Machail Mata shrine, was scuppered by inclement weather and the blocking of a road by a fresh landslide in Paddar Sub-division.

Sixty-five people, mostly pilgrims, were killed, over 100 others injured, and 32 went missing after flash floods in Chisoti on August 14.