Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and sought 450 crore for
relief.
“There are cracks in our house. TV fell down. Our house was shaking. Everything shakes, mama keeps on shouting, runs away from the house holding me. The television fell.I am not allowed to go in the house,” 4-year-old kid Mutayab Bhat said.
“We are scared due to the quake tremors,” 6-year-old Insha said.
Insha’s family and hundreds of residents in Doda and Kishtwar are spending sleepless nights. With more than 50,000 houses and 500 schools damaged, they have moved into tents. Schools have been shut for a fortnight
now and students are not turning up for classes in colleges.
“There are major cracks in the school building. The classrooms are not safe,” a school principle Javeed Kitchloo said.
The government has only been able to provide 10 per cent of the 30,000 tents that are needed. Roads have been damaged too, making it difficult for officials to assess the damage.
“We had to air-drop officials at some far off places to get details of damages. They haven’t come back and reported so far,” Kishtwar Additional District commissioner Rajesh Shavan said.
The Jammu and Kashmir government has sought a relief package on the lines of the Ladakh cloudburst. The centre has committed Rs 350 crore for rebuilding; however, the damage to infrastructure is so widespread that the state might need more.
(CNN-IBN)
