KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
Kashmiri netizens Tuesday reacted to the Annual Disaster Statistical Review 2014, a UN-supported initiative, that has erroneously mentioned world’s costliest disaster of 2014 having occurred in “Jammu region”, and not in Kashmir.
While taking a strong note to the ‘goof up’, a well-known Kashmiri columnist Arjimand Hussain Talib started a petition on the global online petition site change.org for correction in the review.
“Please sign the petition…, and circulate, asking the report publishers to make the necessary correction,” he posted on his Facebook account. “It will greatly matter if we all sign. The record must be put straight.”
Published annually by Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), the review erroneously mentioned the last September floods – the world’s costliest disaster in 2014 – as Jammu-specific disaster, ignoring Kashmir, the correct geographical place where the disaster occurred.
“The September 2014 devastating flood in Indian-administered Kashmir has been an economic catastrophe. It is good to note that the 2014 report recognizes that – describing it as the costliest disaster having occurred in 2014. The report, however, erroneously mentions the disaster having occurred in ‘Jammu region’. The fact is that the flood has occurred in the Kashmir region of Jammu & Kashmir state,” reads the petition.
This incorrect information, the petition said, provides wrong information to the global humanitarian and disaster finance community and has serious implications on recovery and reconstruction efforts happening at the governmental and non-governmental levels in Kashmir.
“It would be greatly appreciated if this correction is made, and the record is put straight,” the petition said.
