New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday directed the authorities to provide food and water to the flood-affected people of Jammu and Kashmir where the toll has crossed 200.
At a high-level emergency meeting on relief operations in the state, Modi was briefed on the status of operations, especially in Srinagar and the Kashmir Valley, said a statement from the Prime Minister Office (PMO).
The prime minister asked the authorities to give top priority to provide essential commodities to the affected people in Srinagar.
He also told the home ministry “to immediately depute senior officers from Delhi and other states to coordinate the relief operations with the local administration in Srinagar”.
Modi said that in view of the huge magnitude of the calamity, the central government needs to provide full support to the state administration, to comprehensively ramp-up the rescue and relief operations.
The prime minister emphasised the need for a massive effort to ensure basic hygiene and sanitation in the water-logged areas of Srinagar.
Modi was informed that the process of restoration of telecommunication links has begun, with about 8,000 landlines being re-activated in Srinagar.
Around 76,000 people have been rescued so far by the armed forces and the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF).
Arrangements are being made for provision of food, water and essential medicines, the PMO said.
Modi also called for coordinating the relief efforts of voluntary organisations as well.
The meeting was attended by Minister of State in the PMO Jitendra Singh, the cabinet secretary, the principal secretary to the prime minister, the additional principal secretary to the prime minister, and other senior secretaries of the government as well as defence officials.