By News Agency of Kashmir
Srinagar : Describing Khundroo ammunition depot fire incident as a major tragedy, Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Thursday said that central government has assured him that the situation would be faced head on so that the people came be compensated and the civilians areas be cleared from the live ammunition.
The Chief Minister, who was replying to a discussion on Khundroo ammunition depot blast in the Legislative Assembly, said that permanent rehabilitation of people in the affected villages was a big task and government would leave no stone unturned in providing succor to them.
Azad said that he had talked with Prime Minister, Defence Minister and the Army Chief about the need to compensate the losses and clear residential houses, orchards and maize and paddy fields of live ammunition as it posed danger to human life.
“Concern was shared by Dr. Manmohan Singh as well as by the Defence Minister and Army Chief who assured him of and actually undertook immediate steps to face the situation head on”, he claimed.
The Chief Minister further asked political parties across board to join hands in meeting the challenge thrown up by the Khundroo incident even as he appealed legislators and government employees to contribute towards relief and rehabilitation of victims of the tragedy.
“The spirit of 2005 needs to be revived when government, opposition, NGOs and public at large joined hands and pooled efforts to help out the tragedy hit people of the state”.
He said the unfortunate incident that happened at Khundroo on August 11 also called for a similar response where everybody should rise above party considerations and reach out to the affected families. He suggested that legislators should donate one month’s salary and government employees a day’s pay for the victims.
The Chief Minister, without naming anybody, said that words had been attributed to him suggesting that he wanted civilian population shifted from nearby ammunition depots. He said when he replied a similar discussion in the Legislative Council day before yesterday he did not say anything to suggest this.
“During my meeting with the Prime Minister on August 18, I suggested to him that in future arms depots should be set up away from population”.
Azad said that the government was alive to the fallout of the incident and consequent sufferings of the local people and did not waste even a minute to reach the spot. He gave details of the measures taken by the administration from the time of occurrence and dismissed opposition’s charge that it did not reach out to the victims of the tragedy.
“Six relief camps were immediately set up for the evacuated people where today about 6500 people are lodged and provided food and shelter”, he said adding, medical facilities, tents, blankets and drinking water have been provided in ample measure.
He said the army has cleared 11 of the 13 villages of live ammunition while the remaining two would be cleared by Sunday. He said survey of villages to assess damages caused to residential houses has been started by seven teams.
Each team comprises 7 to 8 officials including Naib Tehsildar, Girdawar, Patwari, VLW and a police official. The survey process would be videographed and supervised by an Assistant Commissioner, Revenue. He said the assessment would be completed by the first week of September and forwarded to the Government of India by 15th September for release of compensation money.
He said preliminary reports suggest that 20 percent houses in the affected villages had been fully damaged while another 40 percent were partially damaged and could be repaired. He said clearance of orchards and paddy and maize fields had also been started and once these were cleared assessment of loss to crop and fruit would be taken up and a case for compensation sent to the centre.