Jammu and Kashmir floods: Wireless sets rushed to revive communication

NEW DELHI: Home Secretary Anil Goswami is inundated with requests to find out whereabouts of his loved ones in Jammu & Kashmir. One of the most powerful bureaucrats in the country who also belongs to J&K, Goswami cannot help. "I simply cannot speak to anyone in J&K," he says, helplessly.

That has been the case since the last 48 hours when phone connectivity collapsed in J&K. There is a virtual black-out due to power failure. The Centre is completely cut-off from the civic administration in J&K while the Army and the Indian Air Force are managing communication through limited satellite phones. The Centre’s hopes of reviving any communication with J&K rest on 15 high-frequency wireless sets that Goswami dispatched to Srinagar on Monday morning.

"They will have to be put up at strategic places so that communication can re-start. We have evacuated 20,000 people but we do not who they are. The situation is only making those calling me for information for their loved ones more frantic, " Goswami, who was up Sunday night, said. He is clueless about the safety of one of his close relatives in Jammu. The situation is unprecedented.

Srinagar is submerged, the National Highway from Jammu to Srinagar is cut-off and the only way to Srinagar by road is from Manali through Leh. "So we have started moving supplies to Srinagar through Manali. You can fly into Jammu and Srinagar but getting into the cities is a big problem," he says.

This is the first time so much water has come after five decades in J&K. "I believe the flood channel — built in the times of the J&K Maharaja — was breached, the embankment gave way and Jhelum waters flooded the city," Goswami said. Asked if the breach had been plugged now, Goswami said he had no way of knowing it as "there is no means to communicate with anybody." Attending another call and jotting down names of those the caller requests be traced, he pleads: "Let my 15 wireless sets be up."

The J&K bureaucrat has more reasons to worry. "This is September. Weather starts to turn cooler in J&K…the floods would have brought the temperature down. But all the blankets with people would be wet. They need blankets; they need drinking water as all taps are submerged. Only 20-odd petrol pumps are working in the Valley and 50 are under water.

We also need heavy-duty pumps to pump out water from low-lying areas of Srinagar," Goswami rattles off his to-do list. He said 23 aircraft, 29 helicopters, 205 columns of Army and 244 boats were on the rescue job. A home ministry statement in the evening said 10 VSAT systems are being air lifted to restore critical telecom towers and a satellite link from Bardula has been provided for crucial communication. Till then, Goswami is banking on his 15 wireless sets.