Frequent flooding in uptown Srinagar is not a surprise for commuters in the summer capital now as even normal rain of few hours brings streets in uptown Srinagar including commercial hub Lal Chowk under several inches of water. Though dewatering of the streets in Srinagar is primarily the job of the drainage division of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) but during last two days of continuous downpour in the city volunteers were seen carrying out dewatering exercises on the streets in uptown Srinagar. While the Commissioner Srinagar Municipal Corporation and the officials of drainage division of the SMC were founding missing in the inundated areas in uptown Srinagar, the Deputy Commissioner Srinagar was seen taking snap shots of the dewatering exercises of the volunteers on his smart phone. Deputy Commissioner Srinagar as the district magistrate could have intervened to bring the entire team of the drainage division of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) on the streets for carrying out the dewatering exercises and he could have even sought the help of Urban Environmental Engineering Department (UEED) and the J&K Fire & Emergency Services Department which at times press into service dewatering pumps in Srinagar parts . Though district magistrate Srinagar could have also set up joint control rooms in his office for closely monitoring the dewatering exercises in different areas of uptown Srinagar but he did not bother to do so even after seeing most of the uptown areas inundated. If District Magistrate Srinagar, Commissioner Srinagar Municipal Corporation and Chief Engineer Urban Environmental Engineering Department (UEED) would have coordinated to carry out the dewatering exercises much before the water started touching main roads, the streets in uptown Srinagar won’t have come under several inches of water.
Since the Deputy Commissioner Srinagar and Commissioner Srinagar Municipal Corporation are not responding to the flooding situation in time it is now for the divisional commissioner Kashmir to keep always the flood control agencies of the government in a state of preparedness.
According to the weather forecast of the MeT department the rains are likely to lash valley on August 11 and 12 again but keeping in view the casual approaches of the authorities in combating the flooding situation we should not be surprised to see streets in uptown Srinagar coming under several inches of water in coming days again. Since the Deputy Commissioner Srinagar and Commissioner Srinagar Municipal Corporation are not responding to the flooding situation in time it is now for the divisional commissioner Kashmir to keep always the flood control agencies of the government in a state of preparedness.
