Srinagar youths develop web portal to monitor flood victims' rehabilitation

With millions of rupees flowing in from different NGOs for the Jammu and Kashmir flood victims, some youths from the Kashmir Valley have developed a web portal named 'Athwas' (handshake) to track the relief and rehabilitation work being carried out.

The portal aims to help in the smooth and fair distribution of food and medicines to needy persons.

"I think this is very important. There should be a specific place where you can send reports and have a specific site where you get to know where relief has been provided so that we can make sure that every person who has been hit by floods can get relief," said Seher Qazi, a journalism student.

Many NGOs have enrolled on this portal to do relief work in a transparent manner. The Federation Commerce Industries Kashmir has helped these youths by providing them an office and some infrastructure.

Jammu and Kashmir saw extensive flooding last month with Srinagar particularly hard hit. Hundreds of people were killed and tens of thousands left homeless. More than 75,000 people were in partly submerged homes in Srinagar, where roads had transformed into stagnant canals strewn with wreckage, trash and dead animals.