Kashmir (J&K) is considered a sensitive state not only politicallybut its physical topology is also vulnerable to earthquakes and floods. The prolonged political instability, turmoil and unrestwith a risk of earthquakeand floods posed a huge threat to this piece of land known as “Paradise on earth”. Almost all sectors like Agriculture, Tourism, Transport system, Education and Sports badly affected due to these natural &undesirable circumstances. In addition to above the weather of Kashmir is severely cold in winter which needs to be taken into consideration while construction of houses and buildings.
Earthquakes do not kill people but buildings kill them. A huge investment in constructions of big home buildings with the installation of luxury items inside has a major concern of blocking of funds. The earthquake provisions in building code involve tricky balance.Buildings too weak lowers cost but increases risk while as too strong imposes unneeded costs (typically 5-10% or more) and uses resources that could be better used otherwise. Too strong buildings can produce less safety because older buildings won’t be replaced if too expensive.
The impact of floods in the year 2014 and subsequent turmoil in the year 2016 is visible at every individual which induced its social, economic, and environmental consequences. The immediate impacts of floods include damage to property, destruction of crops, loss of livestock, and deterioration of health conditions. A damage to infrastructure causes long term impacts, such as damage to homes, restoration of power supply, transport, communication, education and health care. The loss of livelihoods, reduction in purchasing power and loss of land value in the floodplains leave the communities economically vulnerable. Due to floods the key agricultural production area lead to widespread damage to crops and fencing and loss of livestock. The flow-on effects of reduced agricultural production impacted outside the production area, as food prices increased due to shortage in supply. Damage to public infrastructure affects a far greater proportion of the population than those whose homes or businesses are directly inundated by the flood. The funds made available for flood victims by the Government is also a public money distributed through Disaster Management Policy.
Suppose our district is about to build a new school building. The more seismic safety means the more it will cost. We have to decide how much of the construction budget to put into safety of school building. Spending more makes better off in a future large earthquake. However, we are worse off in the intervening years, because that money isn’t available for office and class space and equipment. Deciding how much to spend and type of school building involves cost-benefit analysis. The costs are ultimately borne by society as a whole hence reduced economic activity and resulting reduction in tax revenue and thus affect social services. The use of FEMA estimates life of building to infer annual fractional loss in building value from earthquakes. If loss halved by new code than over 50 years code saves 1% of building value.
There are different climate factors that must be considered in building constructions and building designs. The most significant climate factors are weather temperature, soil temperature, angle and intensity of sunlight. Generally, weather and climate role in building construction is of importance in respect to looking at the past climate with the goal of building design and forecasting weather condition in the future. In our country weather forecast is done by the state’s meteorological organization freely. But in other countries, private companies or individuals do it in return for money. Therefore, they take responsibility for what they forecast.
Un-planned Construction a major Causes of floods
A year 1998, nature’s most turbulent years, floods wreaked havoc in North America, South America, Asia and Europe. Scientists cited factors viz, deforestation and global warming are the two main manmade causes that led to disastrous floods with loss of lives and huge damage. A debate around the world is that nature is to blame for natural hazards while one section says that man causes or triggers these hazards by deforestation and pollution. In China, a flood affected the lives of 250 million people and caused large scale devastation.
Many parts of India suffer flooding every year during the annual monsoon rains from June to September. The northeast monsoon has been particularly vigorous over southern India and more so in Tamil Nadu state, of which Chennai is the capital.The floods are a wakeup call for India’s teeming cities that were built with the expectation that the environment would adjust itself to accommodate the need for the city to grow.
In case of our state, scientists say that since the drainage channels of the city has been blocked by erecting buildings and the link between the lakes has been cut off due to unplanned urbanization and encroachment, the lakes have lost their power absorb water the way they used to a century ago and save the city from floods. The wetlands and lakes act as sponges during floods.
According to a Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report the catchment area of the Dal Lake is 314 sq. km out of which 148 sq. km was identified as prone to soil erosion. The open area of the lake had been reduced to 12 sq. km from 24 sq. km and its average depth also reduced to three metre because of siltation. For this reason the lakes ability to naturally drain out flood waters has greatly suffered. The Mar Nalla converted into Nallamar road and construction of buildings & shopping malls at Doodhganganalla. Similarly Bemina and Batmalo wetlands converted into residential colonies and Bus stands. A study revealed that Anchar, Gilsar, Khushalsar Lakes and Brar-i-Nambal water bodies lying in the core area of the city are ecologically degraded and under tremendous pollution load mainly due to illegal constructions and other reasons as well.
Nuclear family- A new Trend in buying a property.
From a time, when property buying decisions were solely made by the male members of the family, modern families now place as much importance on the needs of women, children and senior members in the family.In the traditional joint family set-up many people lived in the same house with their individual families. However, the traditional concept of the joint family has seen a radical change. Nuclear families are now the norm rather than the exception. Usually, a nuclear family consists of a couple and their children. Nuclear families do not require as much space as a joint family. Consequently, the property buying decisions of a nuclear family are radically different from those of a joint family both in terms of the people who take the decisions and the choices that are made. Apart from its cost, maintaining an outsized property can be tedious. Contemporary nuclear families prefer homes that are compact and space efficient. The choice of locations stands wait when one opts for flats rather than standalone properties.
While purchasing a property tend is to consider the possibility of upgrading to a larger home in a better location in the future as the financial status will improve. The focus on children’s well-being is greater today than ever before. Therefore, while buying property, parents should check about the availability of parks and playgrounds within the housing premises.
Luxury cars & SUVs
Prices of most SUVs were cut by between Rs1.1 lakh and Rs3.5 lakh after the GST rollout on 1 July. As a result, car market leader Maruti Suzuki India Ltd’s domestic sales rose 22.4% in July from a year ago. Sales at Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd and Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd grew 21% and 43%, respectively in July. Any upward revision in cess will lead to an increase in prices of bigger vehicles. In view of above luxury cars have become a bit more affordable thanks to GST. The prices of Mercedes Benz, BMW, Audi, and JLR decline up to 10% for the fanciest of models after July 1 midnight adoption of the GST. The luxury car market in 2016-17 saw sales of 35,000 vehicles also reflects its impact on J&K also. Market-leader Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi, after the announcement of GST rates in May, decided to pass on the benefits before July 1. The GST may drive double-digit growth in the luxury-car market. Interestingly, the market posted its first ever decline in 2016 because of the ban on diesel vehicles in the National Capital Region, the introduction of infrastructure cess, and the demonetization in November. Apart from price reduction of 4-9% implemented on car prices, Audi India says there are some attractive offers already available from dealer to dealer. The GST Council on September 9 decided to hike cess on mid-sized cars by 2 per cent, taking the effective GST rate to 45 per cent. Also, cess on large cars has been hiked by 5 per cent, taking the total GST incidence to 48 per cent while that of SUVs by 7 per cent to 50 per cent.
The export of bigger cars and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) from India could slow under the goods and services tax (GST) regime as the companies are required to block substantial cash for paying the 15 per cent cess. While this can be reclaimed as a refund, the situation will turn more challenging when this cess is hiked to 25 per cent. Blocking sizeable funds in the process will bring down the competitiveness of companies like Volkswagen, Nissan and Hyundai, among others, in the export market. At the same time the sale of these luxry cards increased on each passing day and the purchasing power of general public do not fade away.
A good percentage of families here in Kashmir blocking funds by constructing more than two story building decorated the same with modern luxury items aggregating to crores of rupees besides,each member keeping a luxury car. Holding the property in crores of rupees the main bread earner is searching for a job or to establish his own business. If somehow a member gets employed at Class IV position then he or she is attending the office on his / her luxury SUV car daily.
Shabir Ahmad Shah is a Socio-economic Analyst
