General Officer Commanding of Chinar Corps, Lieutenant General Subrata Saha, on Tuesday said the Army has its operating bases all across the state to handle any situation arising out of the flood-like situation in Jammu and Kashmir.
“We have got our operating bases in all corners of Kashmir ready to take on any situation. That is precisely what I had gone to check, we are ready to take on any emergency … What is different from the last time is that the spill channels rather than the Jhelum itself where the weaknesses (of Bunds) are evident because in most of the places there is lot of water logging and a bit of overflow of water from the spill channel. These two are adding together to complicate the problem,” Saha told ANI.
He said the high level of ground water and seepage through the bunds which were repaired after last year’s flood are the main reasons behind water logging in the rain affected areas of the state.
“Along the Jhelum there are two things which are causing concern, one is that the ground water level is very high so there is some kind of seepage which is coming from down below. And the second thing is that at number of places where bunds were repaired, in those places the seepage is taking place. So now there is water logging because of heavy downpour and then the water over flowing with some seeping through the bunds, all of it adding to the situation,” he added.
Heavy rains and a landslide in Kashmir have killed 17 people as authorities continued working to rescue stranded villagers, with unseasonal rains raising fears of flash floods in the northern part of the state.
Fifteen people were killed when a hillside collapsed onto a house in Ledhan village, about 40 km from Srinagar, on Monday. Army and police used shovels and diggers to search for those missing.
The harsh situation in the state is a reminder of the September 2014 floods in the valley, the worst in more than a century that killed more than 200 people and displaced almost a million for weeks.(ANI)