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Karnataka tourists stuck in flood-hit Kashmir await aid from State


www.mangaloretoday.com

New Delhi: Sep 13, 2014 (DHNS): Hundreds of tourists from Karnataka are still stuck in flood-hit Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) awaiting help while neighbouring Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and other states have managed to evacuate a large number of their people with better co-ordination with defence forces and local administration.

flood-hit Jammu and KashmirAccording to reports reaching here, hundreds of tourists from Karnataka are still stranded in rain-ravaged areas expecting help. Only those who could afford to buy air tickets themselves, have been able to reach back home early.

Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat have deputed senior ministers and dozens of officials to the Valley and opened help desks in different places including Jammu, Srinagar, Kargil and Leh, and arranged free air tickets and other facilities to bring back their tourists.

“There is a lot of communication gap between Karnataka government officials in Srinagar and Bangalore. Karnataka government officials in Srinagar asked us to cancel our air tickets, promising free air tickets. When we landed in Delhi from military aircraft, however, the state government officials refused to give ticket saying they have so such arrangements,” said Gururaj Pejavar, a Bangalore based businessman.

Senior Maharashtra IAS officials are visiting different camps and arranging phone calls so that tourists can talk to their near and dear ones, but no such help came from our government officials, he said.

“Many people are not getting any help from the state due to lack of co-ordination among officials,” Nagaraj, from Banaswadi in Bangalore, pointed out. Hundreds of people are waiting at Raj Bhavan alone, he said. Niveditha, from Rajarajeshwarinagar in Bangalore said: “Actually, help is needed to locate those stranded and their subsequent evacuation in co-ordination with defence forces, which is what most of the states are doing. Some states have even deputed their MLAs and officials to Raj Bhavan, which is a major evacuation centre from the flood-hit areas to the Srinagar Airport, to help their people.”

“Rather than deputing its officer to Raj Bhavan, the two officials sent by the State government are waiting at the Srinagar military airport counting how many have come back”, she said.

Though the Karnataka government claimed that they have evacuated 250 persons, more than 600 tourists from the State were still stuck in different places, said a senior official from the state said.

The Karnataka government is giving only needy people sleeper class train tickets from Delhi to their home towns, but there is no instruction from the state government to give flight tickets, said an official.


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