Jammu and Kashmir [India], August 16 (ANI): Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Friday visited Jammu Government Medical College and Hospital to inquire about the health of those injured in the flash floods in Kishtwar.
Speaking to ANI, Singh described the disaster as unprecedented. “This was an unprecedented disaster and I feel that we have never seen or heard of it in our lifetime. We have never experienced anything like this in this area and recently, such cloudbursts have been happening in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand too. In comparison to that, this was a very big disaster incident,” he said.
He lauded the local residents for their swift response. “The locals did a commendable job as first responders in this disaster. Because the way it happened suddenly took everyone by surprise. No one was prepared, neither the security personnel, nor the administration, nor the local officials, but the local people there immediately started the work of relief and the first information was also given by the local authorities from there. The first call to me was also made by the local MLA, Sunil Sharma, within 5 minutes of the incident,” Singh added.
The Union Minister also praised the coordinated efforts of all authorities involved in the rescue operations. He said, “The rescue operation being done following the whole of government concept will be an example for the country. There are paramilitary forces, CRPF, BSF, Indian Army, Indian Air Force, local administration, DGP of J&K police who is personally camping there and not only this, BRO is also there because after the first day’s rescue operation, we realised that there was a lot of debris which only BRO had the equipment to remove.”
Singh acknowledged Prime Minister Narendra Modi for closely monitoring the situation. “The PM is taking a review of the whole situation. He also spoke to the LG yesterday,” he added.
When asked about the casualties and official numbers, Singh said, “Till now, 53 bodies have been retrieved from the debris. Four of these are still to be identified; the rest have been identified. But god knows how many are buried now because even in the langar where the body was buried, it is possible that there may be more than 100-200. At the time this disaster struck, 1500-2000 people were present there. Some people were inside the langar, some were outside, and some were travelling. And it will still be difficult to count the number of those people who must have been swept away by water due to bad luck.”
He praised the hospital administration for the work they have done to save people. He said, “…The principal, Dr. Ashutosh, and his entire team are worthy of praise. They have worked not only as doctors but also the whole nursing staff, the entire assistance staff took care of all those people as they were in a state of panic. Many people do not suffer very serious injuries, but the help and counselling given to them to overcome the mental shock effect is also helpful.”
“In the hospital here, 67 injured persons are admitted. Out of 67 people, five people have been discharged. Now we did a round and saw that 15 more will be discharged…and I feel it is happening slowly because many people have soft tissue injuries. There were 1-2 fractures because the debris was full of mud and rocks. It is so fortunate that there were no stones and rocks in it, so there were no head injuries, and there were not many hard injuries,” Singh added. (ANI)
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