KISHTWAR/JAMMU, Aug 16: A coordinated rescue and relief operation continued for the third consecutive day on Saturday in a remote village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar district, where 60 people lost their lives and over 100 others were injured, officials said.
Union Minister Jitendra Singh, accompanied by Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police (DGP) Nalin Prabhat, visited the devastated village late Friday night and reviewed ongoing rescue and relief efforts carried out by the police, army, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Border Roads Organisation (BRO), civil administration, and local volunteers operating in the high-altitude terrain.So far, 50 bodies have been identified and handed over to their next of kin after completion of legal formalities. Meanwhile, 75 persons have been reported missing by their families, although locals and eyewitnesses claim that hundreds may have been swept away by flash floods and buried under giant boulders, logs, and rubble.
Among the deceased were two personnel of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and a Special Police Officer (SPO) of the local police, the officials added.
The disaster struck Chisoti-the last motorable village en route to the Machail Mata temple-at approximately 12:25 pm on August 14. It flattened a makeshift market, a langar (community kitchen) site for the yatra, and a security outpost.
At least 16 residential houses and government buildings, three temples, four water mills, a 30-meter-long bridge, and over a dozen vehicles were also damaged in the flash floods.
The annual Machail Mata yatra, which began on July 25 and was scheduled to conclude on September 5, remained suspended for the third consecutive day on Saturday. The 8.5-kilometre trek to the 9,500-foot-high shrine starts from Chisoti, located about 90 kilometres from Kishtwar town.
Rescue efforts were intensified with the deployment of nearly a dozen earth-movers by the civil administration and the use of specialized equipment and dog squads by the NDRF.
“After a long, tedious uphill drive, managed to reach the site of the cloudburst disaster in Kishtwar. very late, around midnight,” the Union Minister said in a social media post after the visit.
He was accompanied by the DGP and was briefed on the ongoing rescue and relief operations.
EXPLOSIVES USED TO SPEED UP RESCUE OPS
Explosives were used to blast giant boulders hampering the ongoing rescue and relief operations in the disaster-hit Chisoti village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar district on the third day on Saturday, officials said.
Army has also deployed additional troops to intensify the efforts, they said.A total of 60 persons, including three CISF personnel and a Special Police Officer, have died and 82 people were reported missing in the cloudburst and the resultant flash floods that struck the remote village in Padder sub-division on Thursday afternoon. Around 167 people have been rescued so far, some critically injured.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah visited Chisoti village on Saturday morning and announced an ex-gratia assistance from the chief minister’s relief fund to the affected families as a “measure of solidarity and immediate relief”. He also assured them long-term support.
PM MODI MONITORING SITUATION
Union minister Jitendra Singh on Saturday reached out to people admitted in the Government Medical College here with injuries from the cloudburst and flash floods that struck a remote village in Kishtwar district two days ago.Singh said the search and rescue operations are continuing round the clock and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is personally monitoring the situation.He said 53 bodies have been recovered so far.
“Prime Minister Modi is personally monitoring the rescue and relief operations. On the very first day, he held a review meeting. On Friday, he spoke to the Lieutenant Governor and the Chief Minister and received a briefing. He continues to assess the situation from time to time,” Singh told reporters at the hospital.
Singh, who had visited the disaster-hit Chisoti village on Friday night and returned on Saturday afternoon, was briefed about the treatment given to the injured.
“When the Prime Minister himself is monitoring the efforts, every government department is fully active and working in tandem. The compensation will also be more than expected,” he said.
He said the Union Territory government has no reservations in this matter.
CM OMAR VISITS DAMAGED VILLAGE
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday reached Chasoti village in the Kishtwar district to assess the damage caused by flash floods triggered by a cloudburst that left 60 people dead and over 100 injured.
A coordinated rescue and relief operation is underway in the village where 75 people have been reported missing by their families, even as locals and witnesses claim that hundreds may have been swept away by the flash flood and buried under giant boulders, wooden logs, and rubble.
The chief minister, who arrived in Kishtwar on Friday evening, left for Chasoti by road early Saturday. He is accompanied by his political advisor, Nasir Aslam Wani.
A senior army officer, supervising the relief and rescue operation, briefed Abdullah at the scene about the ongoing operation. The chief minister was also provided with a virtual reality headset to understand the extent of damage caused by the flash floods. (PTI)