Congress asks Govt to fix responsibility

Jammu, Aug 28: Congress Thursday said that 34 lives of Vaishno Devi pilgrims could have been saved had the authorities suspended the yatra in advance in view of the high weather alert and demanded a high-level probe to fix the responsibility.

Addressing a joint press conference, working president of JKPCC Raman Bhalla, chief spokesperson Ravinder Sharma, former minister Yogesh Sawhney, and ex-MLC Ved Mahajan expressed grave shock and concern over the Mata Vaishno Devi tragedy, claiming that the same could have been averted and the lives saved had the authorities suspended the yatra in advance, knowing fully the high weather alert.

Bhalla said that the government failed to learn lessons from the Chisoti tragedy and did not suspend the Vaishno Mata Yatra in time, leading to a huge loss of lives for which responsibility should be fixed in a time frame, unlike in the past stampede tragedy a couple of years ago.

Senior Congress leaders referred to the unprecedented loss to the private and public infrastructure, uprooting a large number of families in various localities of Jammu city and different parts of Jammu province and disrupting the road connectivity and mobile network, especially the entire Chenab region, and impressed upon the administration to undertake the relief and restoration works on war footing.

After conducting a hectic tour of different worst-affected localities of urban and semi-urban Jammu as well as certain rural areas along with a team of senior leaders and local workers during the past two days, Bhalla stressed that there was an immediate need to restore water and power supply, besides water tanker service, to the affected areas, besides providing cooked rations and temporary shelter to the people whose households were damaged.

He said that the immediate task should be relief and restoration work to provide support to the people who are uprooted. “This needs to be done on war footing in all areas simultaneously. More men and machinery and volunteers need to be utilised in view of the huge loss and damage to the several low-lying localities,” he said.

Yogesh Sawhney lauded the efforts of civil society members rendering free langer supply and other assistance. “But the administration’s action and support are not visible in most affected areas where the households’ items of the inhabitants have been destroyed and washed away,” he said.

He demanded free langer service in different affected areas and accommodated the uprooted families in banquet halls and other shelter places till life was restored.

They also regretted that due to the dual control system, both the LG and the Chief Minister visited to assess the situation but held separate review meetings in this crisis situation.