Communist leader M Y Tarigami has demanded an urgent and time bound inquiry into the loss of lives in the Kishtwar cloudburst.
Calling it a criminal negligence, Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Tarigami, who is the chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Assembly’s environment committee, has asked why precautions were not taken when the meteorological department had warned of rainfall and cloudbursts.
“Why were precautionary measures not taken despite early warnings from the Meteorological Department about severe rainfall, cloudbursts and flash floods in high altitudes of Jammu region,” Tarigami asked. “Why were these alerts ignored and preventive measures not taken? It amounts to criminal negligence”.
Tarigami, a five-time legislator, blamed “bureaucratic inertia” for such disasters. “Such disasters are not merely natural but are exacerbated by the reckless exploitation of resources, deforestation, unabated and unauthorised use of stone crushers and the commodification of land under the neoliberal paradigm,” he said.
He further said: “The working-class and marginalised people of Jammu and Kashmir cannot continue to be sacrificial lambs at the altar of profit-driven environmental degradation.”
Demanding climate justice for Jammu and Kashmir, Tarigami urged coordination between various government departments, NGOs and activists “to ensure the decisive say in climate adaptation and mitigation strategies”.
“The Union and UT administrations must institutionalise mechanisms for climate reparations, ensuring that affected communities are rehabilitated and compensated,” he said.
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He went on to say: “A mass movement must be launched to combat deforestation, regulate unsustainable construction, and protect fragile ecosystems from corporate loot and early warning systems like advanced Doppler radars and weather satellites for real-time detection of intense rainfall and issuing of timely warnings via mobile alerts (SMS, push notifications) local broadcasters and loudspeakers in vulnerable areas top reach all residents swiftly should be set-up”.
He said the House’s Environment Committee will mobilise people irrespective of their affiliations in a united struggle for climate justice.
While expressing concern over the increase in extreme weather events, Tarigami said tragic incidents often happen at shrines where thousands of devotees throng annually. “As such, measures need to be taken to safeguard human lives,” he said. “Whether any survey and assessment of the whole area has been made by involving the department of environment and other organisations and suggestions recommended for prevention of cloud bursts and safety of people?”
