J-K floods: Home Secretary Goswami meets CM Omar

Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami, who is monitoring the rescue and relief operations in flood-battered Jammu and Kashmir, met Chief Minister Omar Abdullah here on Saturday.

Goswami, who is camping in Srinagar for the past two days, had earlier held a series of meetings with the officials of Indian Army, Indian Air force, state administration and other agencies engaged in the relief and rescue works.

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.

Thirteen tonnes of water purifying tablets and six water filtration plants with a capacity to filter 1.2 lakh bottles per day has already reached Srinagar. Engineering stores including suction pumps from Vishakhapatnam have reached to flood affected area. Twelve sewage pumps from Delhi have also been dispatched to the valley. Thirty generator sets of 3 to 5 KVA capacity have also been sent to Srinagar to augment continuous power supply in relief camps and field hospitals. Communication equipment of Department of Telecommunication, Army, BSNL and some of private companies have been dispatched to restore the communication systems in the State.

Eighty six transport aircraft and helicopters of the Indian Air Force and Army Aviation Corps are continuing their efforts in the rescue and relief operations.

The Indian Army has deployed around 30,000 troops for rescue and relief operations, in which 21,000 troops are deployed in Srinagar region and 9,000 troops in Jammu region.

The armed forces personnel are distributing water bottles and food packets on a large scale. So far, more than 4,00,000 litres of water, 1,31,500 food packets and over 800 tonnes cooked food have already been airdropped and distributed in the flood-affected areas.

The armed forces have also established 19 relief camps in Srinagar and Jammu region.

To restore the road connectivity, five task forces of Border Roads Organisation, which include 5700 personnel, have been deployed in Srinagar, Rajouri and Akhnoor. As of now, they have restored the road connectivity from Batote - Kishtwar, Kishtwar - Anantnag and Jammu - Poonch.