Kashmir floods: J&K armed police to provide homes to flood-hit villagers

Jammu: Taking a lead in rehabilitation of flood-hit people in Kashmir valley ahead of winters, J&K Armed Police has launched “Operation Basera” — an initiative to provide homes to homeless flood victims in Srinagar. The floods in September caused havoc across many districts of the state in which over 15 lakh families spread over 5,794 villages were affected. As per the assessment received, around 3,44,607 structures have suffered damages, 90,000 cattle and other livestock perished, crop loss reported in 6.52 lakh hectares of land besides huge loss to public and private infrastructure. [caption id=“attachment_1759573” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters image[/caption] Jammu and Kashmir Armed police in collaboration with ‘Udhay foundation’ and ‘Paie Engineering Limited’ extended “Operation Basera” on Wednesday. “We want to reach out to homeless people. In this direction, we have launched a mission for providing homes to homeless flood-hit people in Srinagar,” Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Armed Police, S M Sahai told PTI. In this direction, several prefab huts were installed in Tengpora area of Srinagar city for the families who had completely lost their homes due to floods that hit the valley during the preceding month. The fully furnished huts with a dimension of 12x10x6 feet are made of tin sheets, ply boards, iron and are insulated with synthetic thermo-cool keeping in view the harsh winters of the valley. Sahai, who took a lead in launching this mission, said that Operation Basera, started by the Armed Police, will continue till December 15 this year. ADGP said that in the initial phase, 60 such prefab huts would be set up in Srinagar and it would further spread to other areas of Jammu region. He said that Armed Police will rehabilitate as many families as possible prior to the arrival of winters in the state. “We will also focus on the areas of Rajouri and Poonch hit by the floods in Jammu division,” he added. The state Armed Police is also continuing with its cleaning and sanitation drive that was started last month and it has been extended to educational institutions. “We have been instrumental in massive cleaning operation of various government buildings including hospitals, after the floods. Our men work very hard,” Sahia said. The Armed Police is tirelessly working to rehabilitate the education sector so that the students do not suffer and the class work continues smoothly, he added. PTI