Jammu grabs relief material meant for Srinagar

SRINAGAR — At a time when flood-hit Srinagar is craving for relief, officials in Jammu district administration have been grabbing the lot meant for the summer capital.

From across the country, various humanitarian organizations have been sending in relief. But it so happens that for the transportation of relief material via trains, the authorities have put a rider that the goods be addressed to the district or divisional administration of Jammu. But once the dispatch reaches Jammu, the administration denies it being taken to Kashmir.

A Lucknow-based humanitarian group Jamiat-e-Shababul Islam had dispatched relief material comprising 800 bags of rice and hundreds of blankets via train to Jammu, from where it was supposed to be transported to Srinagar in trucks.

Jamiat-e-Shababul Islam, President Muhammad Tabrez said the railway authorities had put the condition that relief material could only be ferried in a train if it was addressed to District Commissioner Jammu.

“We were told that once the relief material reaches Jammu, it would be handed over to us. But the relief material was not handed over to us,” the volunteers said.

A Srinagar-based voluntary group, which was scheduled to distribute this relief in the devastated summer capital said the undue delay has hampered relief operations as people are continuing to suffer for the want of essentials. “It’s getting cold here so blankets were needed. Moreover, our ration stocks are also getting exhausted,” he said.

Sources said some officials in the Jammu administration did the same with voluntary relief coming from other states as well. “Only a humanitarian group from Gujarat was able to get its relief back when they called a news conference against the high-handedness of the administration in Jammu,” they said.

Sources said the officials in the winter capital have stocked all the relief pouring in for Srinagar and are distributing it in their “areas of choice and to people of choice.” “A big politics is going on over relief which is reaching Jammu through rail head. One wonders why the government is silent over the wrongdoings,” said a source privy to the deals.

When contacted, the DC Jammu AK Sahu refuted the complaints of wrongdoings. He said the relief which comes to his office or the Divisional Commissioner Jammu was not specifically for Kashmir. “But if some group comes to us with details, we’ll look into the matter,” the DC said.