J-K flood losses in excess of Rs one lakh crore

Over 350,000 structures, mostly residential, damaged in the worst floods in the past 112 years

Jammu and Kashmir government today said the preliminary assessment of cumulative losses due to floods in the state was in excess of Rs 1,00,000 crore and expressed hope that the Centre will go out of its way to provide succour to the affected people.

"The losses due to floods including the (private) businesses is in excess of Rs one lakh crore," state Chief Secretary Mohammad Iqbal Khandey told reporters here.

The Chief Secretary said the state government was in the process of preparing a detailed memorandum of losses due to floods which shall be submitted to the Centre by this weekend.

"We are in the process of preparing the memo.It will be approved by the Cabinet and should be sent to the Centre by the weekend," he said.

"We are extremely optimistic that the Government of India will go out of its way to provide succour to the affected people," Khandey said.

He said Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has written a letter to the Union Government, requesting a special package for the rehabilitation of the flood affected people of the state.

"We have requested Rs 5 lakh compensation for each fully damaged pucca house and Rs two lakh each for partially damaged pucca houses," he said.

Giving details of the damages to various sectors, the Chief Secretary said more than 350,000 structures - mostly residential houses - have been damaged in the floods, which were the worst in the state over the past 112 years.

"More than 83,000 'pucca' houses have been fully damaged while 96,089 such houses have suffered partial damage. Similarly, 21,162 'kucha' houses have been fully damaged while 54,264 such houses have been partially damaged," he added.

"The crop losses have been to the tune of Rs 5611 crore including Rs 1568 crore losses to the horticulture sector," he said, adding 650,000 hectares of land has been affected by the deluge.

"Over 10,000 milch animals and 33,000 sheep and got perished in the floods," he said.

Khandey said Tourism infrastructure and government residential colonies have suffered losses to the tune of Rs 5,000 crore.

"These are all preliminary estimates. A detailed assessment is presently underway," he said.