Amit Shah visits flood-hit areas of Jammu to assess damage, relief efforts

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday visited the flood-hit areas of Jammu, officials said.

He will also visit Manguchak, the worst-hit village of the district.

Accompanied by Lt Governor Manoj Sinha and Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Shah stopped on the Tawi bridge near Bikram Chowk and inspected the damage along the riverbanks.

Shah had reached Jammu on Sunday night to assess the flood situation and the relief efforts.

 

He is likely to undertake an aerial survey of the flood-hit areas later in the day.

He will also chair two separate meetings at Raj Bhawan on flood relief and the damage caused to the border security grid by the flash floods, officials said.

More than 130 people have been killed and 33 have gone missing in cloudbursts, landslides and flash floods in Kishtwar, Kathua, Reasi, and Ramban districts since August 14.

Record rainfall during August 26-27 caused flash floods in low-lying areas in Jammu and other plains, causing heavy damage to infrastructure.

The dead include 34 pilgrims who were hit by a landslide en route to Mata Vaishno Devi shrine on August 26.

This is the home minister's second visit to Jammu in three months.

Before this, he had visited the district on May 29, nearly three weeks after the Indian armed forces carried out missile strikes on terror infrastructure across the border in reprisal to the April 22 Pahalgam attack in which terrorists killed 26 people, mostly tourists.

On August 24, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh visited Jammu to take stock of the situation following flash floods triggered by a cloudburst in Chisoti village in Kishtwar district.

Singh's plan to visit the devastated village, on the way to Machail Mata shrine, was scuppered by inclement weather and the blocking of a road by a fresh landslide in Paddar Sub-division.

Sixty-five people, mostly pilgrims, were killed, over 100 others injured, and 32 went missing after flash floods in Chisoti on August 14.