J-K floods: Harsh Vardhan to visit Srinagar tomorrow

Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan will be visiting flood-hit Srinagar on Sunday to assess what medical manpower is required to help control the spread of various diseases in the valley.

"I had come to Jammu today and I will be going to Srinagar tomorrow. Tomorrow when I go to Srinagar, I will assess in detail what manpower and particularly medical manpower is required," Dr. Vardhan said.

"We have teams of doctors ready in the capital and in various other places in the country. We are assessing what is the capacity and what is the need to have these teams of doctors there and what type of specialists are needed," he added.

The Union Health Minister also held a meeting with all the officials in the administration, the municipal corporation, the health department and medical colleges in Jammu.

Dr. Vardhan further said that water borne diseases would be the biggest challenge for authorities after the flood water recedes.

"Now, as the floods start receding, we have a risk of water borne diseases developing in a big way. We have already sent treatment mechanisms for diarrhea, ORS etc. We are keeping a very close watch on the whole situation," he added.

Assuring that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was monitoring things on a day to day basis, Dr. Vardhan also said that tonnes of relief material were being sent to Srinagar.

"As far as Srinagar is concerned, we have already sent lot of doctors there. We have sent around 28 tonnes of medicines there. We have already sent one lakh chlorine tablets, water purifying machines over 1000 tents and many other things. Almost 100 tonnes of material has been sent."

Over 1, 42,000 persons have been rescued so far by the armed forces and NDRF from different parts of Jammu and Kashmir in the ongoing rescue and relief operations in the state.