Parliament panel to visit Kashmir for post-flood assessment

JAMMU: The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Water Resources will be visiting Kashmir next month for first-hand assessment of the devastation caused by the last year's floods in the state.

The panel will be visiting Kashmir next month for first-hand assessment of the devastation caused by the September 2014 floods in the state, Srinagar MP, Tariq Hameed Karra, himself a member of the Committee, said.

Karra said he had requested the Chairman and the Members of the Committee to visit Jammu and Kashmir alongwith the secretaries of the Union ministries concerned to analyse the reasons and suggest remedial measures for the recurrent flood threat in Kashmir.

"The Chairman has conveyed that the members of the committee would be visiting Kashmir from 18 May 2015 for on-the-spot assessment of the recurrent flood threat in Kashmir and the devastation caused by the September 2014 deluge," he said.

Karra, who was elected to Lok Sabha from Srinagar constituency, said, the flood-affected people of Kashmir are yet to come to terms with the massive losses suffered by them and the recommendations of the Parliamentary panel would go a long way in mitigating their suffering.

Meanwhile, speaking at a meeting of the Committee in New Delhi, Karra sought Centre's intervention in formulating a comprehensive conservation plan for River Jhelum, Dal and Wullar Lakes on the pattern of the Ganga conservation plan.

He also sought details of the central assistance, if any, for the state under the Irrigation Management Programme and Flood forecasting programme.