Kishtwar Cloudburst: Over 60 Bodies Recovered, 70 Still Missing

SRINAGAR: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday said that chances of retrieving the 70 missing persons alive from the Chisoti cloudburst site in Kishtwar appear bleak. He announced that a team of experts will be constituted to identify vulnerable areas in order to prevent such tragedies in the future.

Talking to reporters here, the Chief Minister said, “The situation in Kishtwar is known to all and day-by-day, it is becoming impossible to trace the missing people alive. In such a situation, our efforts will be to recover as many bodies and hand them over to the families for the last rites.”

According to the officials, searches are continuing at Chisoti village and till now more than 60 bodies have been recovered. The cloudburst hit the last motorable hamlet in Kishtwar en route to the Machail Mata temple, on August 14, triggering flash floods that left a trail of destruction. A total of 167 persons were rescued.

CM Omar said that the government will provide whatever help possible to the affected persons. “Whatever help we have to provide, we will do as much as possible. They had put a few things before me when I was there, and we will consider it,” he added.

The Chief Minister said Chisoti incident did not happen due to a glacial lake burst but due to a cloudburst. “We will have to set up a team of experts to find out the areas that are at most risk. A few months ago, we saw a similar incident at Ramban. That time we had a lot of material damage, but the loss of lives was less.

He said, “This time the loss of lives is more as a yatra was going on and the cloudburst happened. We will have to get an expert view on how to prevent such incidents and if these happen, how to minimise the losses,” he added.

Responding to a question, Abdullah said the INDIA bloc candidate should win the upcoming election for the Vice President. “The election will take place. We do not understand why this election was imposed on us? VP Dhankar left so suddenly and he has not been seen since. I have had a chance to interact with him and I will pray for his good health. As far as the election is concerned, the INDIA bloc candidate should win,” he said.

On the controversy around NCERT changing chapters about Partition, the Chief Minister said “fiddling with history” is wrong and there should be no politics in it. “Whatever our history is, let the students learn that. After that, let the kids decide what is right and what is wrong. It is a fact that the British sank our boat,” he said.

On the opposition’s criticism of his Independence speech about a signature campaign for the restoration of statehood, the Chief Minister said the job of the opposition was to oppose.

“They do not want statehood. They do not want us to go among people. Earlier, they were asking, ‘Why are you not doing anything?’ Now we want to meet people. Our job is to work (for the people), their job is to oppose,” he said. (KNO)