Jammu- The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Monday visited the fire-ravaged Nehra market here and sought adequate financial assistance from the government for traders who suffered massive losses in the blaze.
Several shops were gutted in a major blaze at the historic market, one of the oldest commercial hubs of Jammu known for its wholesale trade in foodgrains, edible oil, essential commodities and other daily-use items, in the Bikram Chowk area in the heart of the city late Sunday night.
Expressing solidarity with the affected traders, Mufti said they would not be able to recover from the losses or restart their businesses without financial support from the government.
“Our goods and everything else have been damaged. Unless we receive financial assistance, we will not be able to recover from these losses. We need financial support to restart our businesses, as the losses are enormous,” she said.
Describing the incident as a horrifying experience, she said Diwali had turned into a dark and terrifying night for the traders.
Mufti said adequate arrangements should have been made at markets during the festive season, keeping in view the possibility of fire incidents.
She also questioned the adequacy of the firefighting arrangements, saying the fire tenders deployed were too small and larger vehicles should have been pressed into service, which could have helped prevent the fire from spreading.
“These are ordinary people, not big businessmen. Most of them have taken loans, incurred debts and even sold family jewellery to set up their businesses. They earn during the day and use that income to feed their families at night,” she said.
Appealing to the government to extend adequate financial assistance, Mufti said the affected traders needed support to overcome the losses and resume their livelihood.
The affected traders said the market dealt in a wide range of food and grocery items, including edible oil, pulses, flour, rice, ghee, dry fruits and other household goods such as brooms.
They said the losses were estimated to run into crores of rupees, adding that the fire spread rapidly and became difficult to control.
Asked about insurance coverage, they said some traders might have insurance while others did not, as nobody had anticipated such extensive losses.
They alleged that the initial firefighting response was inadequate and that a small vehicle arrived around five minutes after the fire broke out.
“This is such a large foodgrain market. Sending a small vehicle to tackle a fire of this magnitude was not sufficient. The administration should have been better prepared,” one of the shopkeepers said.
He further claimed that the water pressure was initially inadequate and larger fire tenders arrived only after the situation had escalated.
He said special precautions should have been taken on Diwali, given the possibility of fire incidents during the festive period, and called for better preparedness to deal with such emergencies.
This is the second major fire incident in Jammu in a little over a fortnight, resulting in the gutting of two major marketplaces in the winter capital.
The massive fire broke out at Shiv Market on the night of October 25 and continued till the morning of October 26, engulfing at least 40 shops and destroying property worth crores of rupees.
