January 02
Salman Shah
Various families from the South Kashmir district of Islamabad (Anantnag) have complained of officials barging into their households and charging money from the inmates.
A family from Mir Danter area of Islamabad speaking to The Kashmiriyat said that officials knocked at their door a few weeks ago and informed the inmates that they were officials from the office of the Deputy Commissioner.
“They told us that we will be granted flood relief as our house suffered damage during the recent 2014 floods, they asked us to fill a form, upon doing that, they said they will have to deposit a fees of six hundred rupees and we will later be granted compensation for the damage we suffered during 2014 floods,” a family member told.
We checked with several neighbours, these people had also charged money from our neighbours after they filled the forms too, as the news spread in the neighbouring villages, people from those areas too said that the people had also visited their villages, the family member said.
He said that when we got doubtful as it had been several weeks, we visited the office of Deputy commissioner in Islamabad (Anantnag) to check the process. “Upon inquiring at the DC Office, we were told that none of the officials had been sent to the villages to grant flood relief, as there has been no grant of fresh relief for the victims of 2014 catastrophic floods,” he told The Kashmiriyat.
The Additional deputy commissioner of Islamabad (Anantnag), Shokwat Ahmed Rather upon being contacted by The Kashmiriyat said that he is investigating the matter and these people who are looting money from locals will be soon brought to book.
“We request the people to inform us and not give money to anyone who knock at your doors for flood relief,” Showkat Ahmed Rather, told The Kashmiriyat.