Kashmir flood mgmt faces delays as no Jhelum dredging have occurred since 2020

RAJA SYED RATHER

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Despite repeated flood scares in the Kashmir Valley over the past few years, no dredging has been carried out in the River Jhelum or its flood spill channels since March 2020, according to a recent reply by the Irrigation and Flood Control (I\&FC) Department to a Right to Information (RTI) application.

The RTI response, accessed by the news agency, has raised serious concerns over the delay in the implementation of the Comprehensive Flood Management Plan (CFMP), sanctioned under the Prime Minister’s Development Package (PMDP) in 2015 following the devastating 2014 floods. Even a decade later, the plan remains only 80 per cent complete, despite the urgent need for flood mitigation measures in the region.