Jammu and Kashmir flood rehabilitation delayed due to prolonged rescue operations: Jitendra Singh

SRINAGAR: Centre today said the rehabilitation of the flood victims of Jammu and Kashmir has been delayed due to prolonged rescue operations following the natural calamity in the state last month.

"Rehabilitation follows rescue. When the rescue part is prolonged, when the rescue operation is more onerous, the rehabilitation gets delayed accordingly," Union Minister of State in Prime Minister's Office Jitendra Singh told reporters here.

Asked if the present government at the Centre had been tardy compared to the response to 2005 earthquake, Singh said there was no comparison between magnitude of the two tragedies.

"I don't think there is any comparison. This is an unequal comparison. The magnitude of devastation caused by the floods is many times that of the earthquake. The kind of response by the present government is unprecedented to floods," he added.

The Minister said there was no deliberate delay in providing compensation to the flood victims before the onset of winter.

"The process is being followed and it will be done sooner than later," he said.

Singh said dealing with the aftermath of a calamity is a three-phased progress and in normal practice, the rehabilitation stage will come only after the relief phase is over.

"When the rescue is only a day-long, the rehabilitation goes on immediately. The first phase is rescue, then relief and rehabilitation. We are, I may say with responsibility, still in the relief," he said.