J&K CM visits flood-affected areas in Anantnag district

Srinagar, Sep 6 (IANS) Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah on Saturday visited the flood affected areas of Anantnag district.

CM Omar Abdullah visited different areas of Anantnag town in addition to other flood-affected areas of the district.

CM Abdullah later took stock of the flood aftermath and restoration work with officers of the district administration at the local Dak Bungalow in Anantnag town.

He met families of the affected people and went around to personally assess the extent of damage caused to homes, streets, private and public properties.

CM Abdullah assured the affected families that all assistance would be made available to them and that all necessary steps would be taken to provide relief and assistance to those impacted by the floods.

Deputy Chief Minister, Surinder Kumar Choudhary, Cabinet ministers Sakina Itoo and Javed Rana in addition to the CM’s advisor Nasir Aslam Wani, legislators Altaf Kaloo, Majeed Larmi, Dr. Bashir Veeri, Reyaz Khan and Zafar Khattana accompanied CM Abdullah during the visit.

Deputy Commissioner of Anantnag and other senior officers also accompanied the Chief Minister.

J&K has been in the throes of one of its worst floods since August 14 when 67 people, mostly pilgrims of the Machail Mata Yatra, were killed and over 100 others injured when a cloudburst hit Chashoti village of Kishtwar district.

On August 26, a landslide killed 35 pilgrims to the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi shrine when the Yatra was officially suspended.

Most of the Yatris had returned to base camp Katra, but many had taken refuge at a shelter on the route to the shrine.

It was this shelter that was hit by the landslide that caused the tragedy.

Water from the swollen Tawi, Chenab, Basantar and Ujh rivers in Jammu division breached their embankments at many places submerging dozens of villages in Jammu, Samba and Kathua.

Floods caused by the swollen Jhelum river in the Valley also caused devastation, especially in areas marooned after Jhelum breached its embankment in Budgam district.

Anantnag and Pulwama were the other districts in which flood waters washed away fruit bearing trees and submerged many apple orchards in which the trees were laden with the fruit.

Scores of acres of land under Paddy crop also suffered massive damage due to incessant rain accompanied by wind that prostrated the grain bearing crop.

--IANS

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