12.5 lakh families have been affected due to floods in J&K: Khandey

He said  12.5 lakh families have been affected due to floods which hit the state recently and damages to public and private property is estimated to be running in thousands of crores.

He said the Chief Minister has already written a detailed letter to the Prime Minister requesting for a special package for handling the relief and rehabilitation aspects of the disaster caused by the floods in the state recently .

Addressing a press conference here, the Chief Secretary said that never before has such a disaster struck Jammu and Kashmir and such flood level has never been recorded in the state.

Divulging details the Chief Secretary said that 5642 villages were affected across the state with 2489 in Kashmir valley and remaining in Jammu division.

He said as many as 800 villages remained sub-merged for over two weeks.

He said 281 lives have been lost due to floods with 196 lives lost in Jammu province and 85 in Kashmir valley.

Twenty nine persons have also been reportedly missing in the floods, he added.

Khandey said as per the initial assessment reports received by the government on the damages to the private property, a total of 353864 structures have been reported damaged.

He said 83044 pacca houses have been fully damaged and 96089 partially.

Similarly, 21162 kachha houses have been fully damaged and 54264 partially damaged besides 99305 huts, cowsheds, etc have also been damaged.

He said as per the initial assessments, crops have suffered damages to the tune of Rs. 6611 crore including Rs. 4043 crore to agricultural and Rs. 1568 crore to Horticulture crops besides 6.51 lakh Ha land has been affected due to floods.

In addition, 10050 milch animals and 33000 sheep / goats have perished in the floods. He said public utilities and infrastructure including roads, water supply schemes, irrigation, power etc have also been damaged and losses to these sectors has been assessed at Rs. 3000 crores.

In addition, the government residential colonies, tourism infrastructure have suffered damaged to the tune of Rs. 5000 crores.

Chief Secretary further informed that more than 550 bridges/culverts have been damaged which initially affected the road connectivity but immediate repairs were undertaken and now connectivity over most of them has been restored to a large extent.

In addition, 6000 km road network were also damaged in the floods.

He said 3000 WSS were affected however, most of these have been restored temporarily and drinking water is being supplied  under these schemes besides other measures including RO machines have been set up to provide clean water to the people.

Similarly, 3000 power sub-stations, transmission towers, lines were also affected throughout the state.

He said  90 percent of electricity has been restored back to normal.

Khandey informed hundreds of Ration Trucks were dispatched to the flood affected areas and it has been already distributed to the people.

He said free ration to all the 12.5 Lakh flood affected families will be provided for a period of 6 months in the state.

He further said 83000 Qtls of Ration was pushed into Srinagar City alone from Sept 13 to Sept 27 and ration is being provided to 2.70 lakh families in Srinagar on the basis of latest data of the Revenue department.

Chief Secretary further added that no outbreak of any disease has been reported from anywhere in the State and situation is being constantly monitored. He said as many as 7 lakh children in the age group of 6 months to 15 years have been vaccinated.

He said till date over 1500 carcasses have been removed from Srinagar.

(Reporting by Saleem Iqbal Qadri)