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India Meteorological Department (IMD) report:
According to the India Meteorological Department report dated 27th February @ 1600 hrs, a western disturbance over north Pakistan neighborhood is likely to affect weather over Jammu & Kashmir. Satellite imagery indicates multi-layered over western parts of Jammu and scattered low and medium clouds with embedded isolated weak convection over parts of Jammu & Kashmir. Under the influence of this approaching western disturbance, moderate rain/snow is likely at a few places over the region. Outlook for next 24 hours till 29th morning indicate increase in rainfall/snowfall activity over the region.
2. The Western disturbance earlier affected the northern parts of the country from 16th to 20th February, 2005 causing widespread snowfall over Jammu & Kashmir. Jammu and Kashmir has experienced light to moderate snowfall on 24.2.2005 at different places. Cold and dry northwesterly/northerly winds have set in over plains of northwest and west central India resulting in cold wave conditions in these areas.
3. Due to accumulation of snow and the prevailing weather conditions, the danger of avalanches still remains.
4. Regular weather bulletins are being received from IMD and Snow Avalanches Studies Establishment, Chandigarh and disseminated among the concerned agencies.
Event:
5. As per IMD, snowfall upto 2m has occurred at many places in the higher reaches of the Pir Panjal range during 16-20th February, 2005. Highest snowfall recorded in the last 30 years in J & K region has been 4.5 m in February-1996 in Banihal and 8.4 m in February-1967 in Gulmarg. However, initial reports indicate snow accumulation upto 40 ft at several places in different districts. Incidences of landslides/avalanches have been reported at several places in Anantnag, Doda, Poonch, Pulwama and Udhampur districts. Fresh landslides along the National Highway near 168 km onwards on the southern side have also been reported and this has hampered the road clearance work. Fresh snowfall was also reported in Nawapachi and some houses have collapsed in Gole and Arnas areas of Udhampur district. Rajbagh and Kabbi area of Ramban continue to be inaccessible.
6. As per the reports received from the State Government, primary population affected is approx 2.35 lakhs. 278 persons (including 24 security forces/GREF personnel) have lost their lives and more than 262 persons are missing due to snowfall and avalanches. 445 persons have been rescued so far including 40 foreigners. 4500 persons have been evacuated so far to safer places. 12, 000 houses (approx) have been damaged. Rabi crop and the plantations have suffered extensive damage. Anantnag, Doda, Pulwama and Poonch are among the worst affected districts.
6. About 300 search and rescue personnel from Army, Para Military Forces and BRO have taken shelter inside the tunnel for safety reasons.
Relief measures taken by the State Government
7. State Crisis Management Group under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary is meeting everyday to review the situation. State Government has set up round the clock State Disaster Management Control Room in Jammu and Divisional Control Room in Srinagar. Sub-divisional control rooms have also been set up at few places. State Control Room is in constant touch with Ministry of Home Affairs Control Room to exchange information on the rescue and relief operations and assistance to be mobilized. Daily situation reports are being received from the State Govt.
8. The State Government has undertaken necessary rescue and relief operations which include ex-gratia relief of Rs.50,000 to the next of kin of the deceased, Rs.25,000 to the persons severely injured and Rs.5,000 for minor injuries. Relief is also being provided at the rate of Rs.10, 000 for fully damaged houses and Rs.6, 000 for partially damaged houses.
9. Deputy Commissioners of the affected districts have been provided upto Rs.50 lakh for undertaking immediate rescue and relief operations. State Govt has placed Rs 1.00 crore with Divisional Commissioner Kashmir for relief and rescue operations. Civil administration with the assistance of armed forces, paramilitary forces and state Police is making all efforts to reach out to remote locations in different districts for search and rescue operations. Relief materials are also being airdropped in far-flung areas. Armed forces and paramilitary have also provided food packets to stranded passengers on the national highway.
10. Ministry of Defence had been requested to instruct the HAWS, Gulmarg to assist the civil authorities at Anantnag in rescue and relief operations and they have been deployed in Kashmir division.
11. About 1200 people stranded on the National Highway between Ramban- Jammu have been airlifted ex-Udhampur to Srinagar by IAF aircraft on 25.2.2005.
12. Two battalions of ITBP have been deployed in Kashmir division to assist the civil administration in search and rescue operations. ITBP have been advised to take adequate number of spades and shovels with them so that local volunteers can also be engaged in search and rescue and also road clearance operations. Ministry of Civil Aviation arranged special flights for ITBP personnel on 26-27.2.2005.
Coordination:
13. MHA is coordinating rescue and relief in association with all the concerned Ministries/ Departments of Government of India and the State Government. An Inter-Ministerial Core Group under Secretary (BM) (MHA) is reviewing the situation and coordination meetings are being held twice daily.
Sector/Department-wise situation
14. Sector wise situation is as under:
i) Power:
a) 220 KV Kishanpur-Wanpoh line (State owned):
- 4 Towers have collapsed and Conductor snapping at 1 or 2 spots reported so for.
Action Taken: Action plan is being chalked out by the State Government with the assistance of Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCI)/Ministry of Power, for restoration.
b) 132 KV Udhampur-Wanpoh Line (State owned)
- Trees have fallen at 2 spots – Trees removed. Line was charged but could not hold it.
- Conductor snapping at 2-3 places- Further patrolling of line being organised.
c) Distribution Network: Survey and immediate restoration work being taken by the State Government.
State Government has informed that about 50,000 poles have been damaged.
Uri generation has been started from 1800 hours on 22nd February,2005, with a load varying between 100-130 MW and is feeding Srinagar area along with Ziankote, Pampore, Bemina, Wagnapura, Habak, Chashma-Shahi, as a separate island grid. Loher Jhelum HEP with a load of 35-40 MW is feeding Jhelum, Amargarh, Kupwara, as a separate island. With these two islands, nearly 80 % of the Valley load [55% on 23rd ] is being met and the load is less due to outage of distribution system. Generation from Uri and Jhelam HEP will be increased according to addition of load after rectifications.
In Jammu area full load (nearly 550 MW) is being met from rest of the Northern grid.
Aerial patrolling has commenced from 24th February, 2005 and will continue for few days for restoration of 220 KV Kishenpur-Pampore and 132 KV Udhampur-Wanpoh lines. A technical team of Powergrid has been deputed to Srinagar to assess the situation and assist in early restoration of the transmission system.
PGCI is assisting the State Government in restoration of power in entire valley.
ii) Telecom:
I) OFC route between Udhampur and Srinagar washed away due to land slide/snow. These have been restored using gensets.
II) E/A at Srinagar fault causing mobile service failure. It has been restored using gensets and mobile services are operational.
The telecom services are being gradually restored in the entire valley. 34 exchanges are not operational. Dept of Telecom and BSNL have been requested to restore all telephone exchanges at the earliest possible.
iii) Civil Aviation: Scheduled civil flights ex-Srinagar and ex-Jammu are operating. There are around 4000 persons who need to be transported ex-Jammu to Srinagar by air as the road has not opened yet. Ministry of Civil Aviation in consultation with J & K Govt has already scheduled 9 special flights each day for these people. It is expected that this will be completed by 28.2.2005. Divisional Commissioner Jammu is coordinating these operations.
iv) Health: Ministry of Health is taking action to provide essential medicines required by the State Government. Hypothermia is the most common disease in such situations. 198 Cartons carrying about 3 Tons of essential medicines have been airlifted on 23rd February, 2005 to Srinagar by Indian Airlines. 15 MT medicines are being airlifted by civil flights from 24th February, 2005 onwards. Divisional Commissioner, Srinagar has been informed to make necessary arrangements. Armed forces and CRPF coys deployed in the valley are also assisting civil administration in providing emergency health care to the affected people.
v) Petroleum products:
The status of POL stocks and supplies in Srinagar and Jammu as on 25.02.2005 is as under:
PRODUCT Srinagar Jammu
MS (Petrol) 235 KL 5543 KL
SKO (Kerosene) 896 KL 8479 KL
HSD (Diesel) 1786 KL 21696 KL
LPG (MT)@ 169 MT
ATF RESERVE 2600 KL
@ In addition 150 MT of dead stock is available, and some of it could be retrieved if the situation so warrants.
MS (petrol) and SKO (kerosene) are at minimum stock level. In view of acute shortage of LPG, requirement of K Oil has also gone up. State Govt have projected daily requirement of K Oil @ 200 KL per day and Petrol @ 100 KL per day. Over the last 48 hours, approx 200 KL (kerosene/petrol) on 26th and 248 KL on 27th have been airlifted. In order to augment the effort, stock of 300 KL (K Oil & Petrol) per have been planned to be airlifted ex-Pathankot everyday w. e. from 27.2.2005. Adequate stocks are available at Pathankot and Ministry of Petroleum has already put in place a contingency plan to meet the requirements ex-Jammu, Pathankot, Agra, Ambala and Chandigarh. Ministry of Defence will provide adequate number of aircrafts for the purpose from these locations as per the daily plan to meet the requirement of 300 KL per day.
Bottling of 5814 LPG cylinders on 20 & 21 February. 4500 on 23.2.2005 and 3300 on 24.2.2005 has been undertaken so far at Srinagar. Bottling plant is operating at 40% of its capacity. MOD has again been requested to explore movement of LPG by air to Srinagar.
Control rooms have been set up in the Ministry and also in Jammu Divisional Commissioner’s office to monitor daily stock position at different locations in J & K.
vi) Transport Aircraft: State Government has requested for 2 small helicopters viz Chetak or one big helicopter viz M-8/M-17 at the disposal of Divisional Commissioner at Srinagar for rescue and relief operations in the remote areas of the affected districts in the division. One Mi-17 has been made available on 23rd February, 2005. Another transport aircraft is also being arranged by the State Govt.
vii) Clearance of Jammu-Srinagar National Highway [294 km]: Jammu-Ramban stretch is open to traffic. Srinagar-Loharmunda is also open for one-way traffic. Out of total 294 km length between Jammu and Srinagar, now 2 km [36km on 23.2.2005 & 66km on 18.2.2005] of this highway between Ramban-Banihal-Jawahar Tunnel-Loharmunda, one km on each side of the tunnel, is blocked at different places and BRO along with armed forces and state administration is making all efforts for road clearance at three places viz. Ramban, Banihal and Lohar Munda. About 300 persons and 35 equipments [14 equipments on 22.2.2005] are engaged in the road clearing operation. BRO will be able to clear the National Highway for one-way traffic by TODAY.
Two big dozers have already been airlifted ex-Leh to Avantipur and Udhampur. 5 dozers were made available from Rajouri at Ramban. State Government and IRCON have mobilized some dozers/JCB ex-Jammu and Srinagar for BRO so that clearance operation could further be expedited. BRO has pressed these additional machines into operation immediately.
viii) Requirements of essential items: The State Government is airlifting essential commodities like milk powder, vegetables etc ex-Jammu for Srinagar.
iX) Supply of foodgrains: the stock position of foodgrains as on 25.2.2005 at Srinagar and Jammu are as under
Srinagar Jammu
Wheat [MT] 4732 14832
Rice [MT] 12940 16735
Sugar[MT] 94* 6507
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* requires constant monitoring
State Government has requested for enhancement of the sugar stock at Srinagar. In case the stock position of sugar at Srinagar becomes critical, this will be airlifted from Jammu Division, where adequate stocks are available. The Department of Food and Public Distribution informed that FCI Depot at Jammu has been instructed to release the required quantity of foodgrain and sugar to the State Government. State Govt is hiring special cargo aircraft for airlift of all essential items from Jammu to Srinagar. The Department of Food and Public Distribution was advised to monitor the foodgrain stock position in Srinagar in consultation with the State Government and ensure availability of adequate stock.
x) Satellite phones: MHA has provided five Satellite phones for use of officers engaged in the rescue and relief operations. State has requested some more such Satellite phones. It was advised to procure them from the funds of the CRF, as it is an approved item under the CRF guidelines.
xi) Immediate requirement of Rs. 50.00 crore: State Government has requested for release of Rs.50.00 crore for taking rescue and relief operations. It was mentioned that an amount of Rs. 42.43 crore has been allocated in the CRF for the year 2004-05 comprising of Rs. 31.82 crore as Central share and Rs. 10.61 crore as State share. Entire amount of Central share has already been released. The State Government was advised to send the details of expenditure from the CRF so that their request of Rs. 50.00 crore can be considered. Ministry of Home Affairs has recommended to the Ministry of Finance on 24.02.05 to release Rs. 50.00 crore from NCCF on ad-hoc basis. The Central Team for damage assessment led by Joint Secretary (Kashmir) MHA, has been constituted and is visiting the State from TODAY.
MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS
NEW DELHI DATED FALGUNA 09, 1926/February 28, 2005
OK/PM
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