Srinagar, September 10, (Scoop News)_ Over 31000 people have been rescued and taken to safe places by Army in entire Kashmir since the fury of flood hit the Valley, a defence spokesman, colonel S D Goswami told Scoop News by phone
He said additional columns, BUATs and helicopters have been pressed into service to enhance the pace of evacuation.
In Srinagar itself, a total of over 5100 people have been taken out of the flooded areas. While some of them have been further airlifted to the airport area, majority of them have been moved to the staging camp or relief camps established by Army as well as civil administration, Goswami said.
He said In general the water level is receding, however, areas downstream of Jhelum River are experiencing increase in water levels.
In Srinagar town there is a decrease in water level by 3 to 4 feet since the beginning of the floods, where as there is a rise of 6 inches in Wuller Lake.
Manasbal Lake saw a reduction by 3 inches bringing the water level to 18.3 feet, which is still 4.3 feet above danger mark, the spokesman said.
Srinagar town remains the most critical part of flood hit areas. All those areas where it was not possible to reach earlier remained the focus of rescue mission today.
The areas of Rajbag, Jawahar Nagar, Gogji Bag and Shivpora where the bulk of the stranded people are located saw major effort for evacuation.
While greater desperation was seen in the areas which are on the outer fringes, people in the interiors of these colonies are displaying a great sense of responsibility and directing the rescue teams to those people who are worse affected.
Two Russian ladies who were approached for evacuation refused to come out requesting that there were people who were ill and they should be moved out first, the spokesman said.
Large amount of relief material in terms of water, food and medicines was distributed among stranded persons as well as those who are in relief camps or staging camps.
He said approximately 10 Tons of supplies brought in by Army from beyond Kashmir were handed over to the civil administration for distribution.
15000 liters of water has also been distributed among affected people. Tomorrow 15 tons of pre- cooked food and 15000 liters of water is being inducted into valley for distribution.
Col. Goswami said many camps of Army located in South Kashmir and Srinagar have also been flooded and over 1000 Army personnel and families are stranded without food and water.
Since water, electricity, supplies and other services have been hit within the cantonments, the Army personel have adopted measures to conserve the resources thereby that major share of supplies are made available for the Kashmiri people (Awaam).
He said army rescue teams, during the course of evacuation are also interacting with the stranded persons, assuring them that they are comparatively in safer places and it is Army’s commitment to ensure that every single person is taken out to safety.
Meanwhile, IAF has flown AN-32 round the clock and carried 13.5 tons of relief material to Srinagar, out of which 3.4 ton load were of milk products, the spokesman said .
A total of 315 passengers were brought from Srinagar to Jammu. The MI-17 helicopters have started dropping the relief materials in Reasi, Navapachi, Pancheri area since morning.
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