*3 killed, 14 injured as bus slips into gorge
Gopal Sharma
JAMMU, July 20: Rain created havoc in many parts of Jammu region since last night as several rivers and nallahs were swollen with flash floods, causing damage to many houses and shops, affecting normal life of the people while water entered many localities in Jammu city and other towns in Kathua and Samba districts, whereas, during heavy rain near Surankot in Poonch this morning a bus slipped into a nallah resulting into the death of three persons and causing injuries to 14 others.
Mighty river Chenab was heavily flooded and flowing near alert mark this evening and the authorities sounded alert in the low lying areas of Akhnoor, Pargwal, Jourian, Khour and Kanha Chak of district Jammu. Other rivers including Ravi, Ujh, Tarnah, Basantar and Tawi were also swollen but Ujh and Basantar witnessed heavy flood, prompting Flood Control authorities to sound alert in the areas down-stream.
Due to flash flood in many nallahs, the movement of traffic was also affected in Kathua, Billawar, Basohli, Hiranagar, Samba, Ghagwal, Purmandal and Akhnoor area. Due to heavy flood in Bhabar Nallah near Rajpura (Samba) on border road, a large number of vehicles on border road remained stranded for hours together. Water level in Chenab was nearly 28 ft at Akhnoor, just 5 ft below danger mark. It however, nearly touched the alert mark. In Tawi, the water level was also below danger mark.
A bund along the border breached near Ramgarh as a result the water entered the fields of the people at Barota camp causing damage to public property. Dy Commissioner Samba R K Verma and Tehsildar, Vijaypur also visited the area and took stock of the situation.
The heavy rain since last night has claimed at least four lives so far while over a dozen houses have collapsed including a school in old city area. A long wall of a factory collapsed in Bari Brahmana area early morning today while an old house in Kalijani area of Jammu city housing a private school also collapsed. No loss of life was reported in the building collapse but property worth lakhs was damaged.
A passenger bus slipped into a 100 feet deep gorge at Dundak near Surankot in Poonch this morning as a protection wall of the road suddenly collapsed due to heavy rain. Eyewitnesses said that Jammu bound Poonch route bus No. JK02AP/4369 gave passage to a vehicle coming from the other side. It was raining heavily and visibility was also poor. The retaining wall of the road on nalla side got collapsed and the vehicle rolled down into 100 feet deep nallah after hitting against a tree.
Three persons were killed and fourteen others including driver were injured. DC Poonch Sajjad Ahmed Khan, SP Poonch, Shamsheer Hussain Sector Commander 6 RR and SDPO Surankote rushed to the spot and supervised the rescue operation and shifted the injured to Surankote hospital. Out of the three dead, identity of one could not be established. The two deceased were identified as 15-year-old Imtiaz Hussain, son of Mohd Hussain, resident of Lasana and Mohd Rafiq, son of Allah Ditta, resident of Sheen Darra in Poonch.
Six seriously injured were admitted to Surankote and Rajouri hospitals. They are identified as Anu Kumari of Qazi Morha Poonch, Satvir Singh of Poonch, Mohd Shabir of Daraba, Showkat Hussain of Hari Budha, Niaz Ahmed of Hari Budha and Mushtaq Ahmed of Kalai in Poonch.
Another report said that a woman, Anju Chopra was electrocuted when she was busy in removing water from her house in Nanak Nagar area during rain. She got trapped while she turned off the electric transformer installed at the house. She was removed to hospital where doctors declared her as brought dead.
The water from flooded nallahs and drains entered into many city localities including Gangyal, Digiana, Jeevan Nagar, Shanker Vihar, Preet Nagar, Nanak Nagar, Sanjay Nagar, Channi Himmat, Channi Rama, Ambika Colony, Bhagwati Nagar, Trikuta Nagar and many other localities. It caused extensive damage to the public protest.
At several places the people lodged protest against JDA and JMC authorities. At Channi Himmat, the water also entered several shops including a show room of electronic equipment and gadgets. Two houses were also partially damaged after a retaining wall collapsed in Mastgarh (Pir Mitha) area of Old Jammu city last night. The land lady Vaishnodevi alleged that despite representation to JMC the partially damaged wall was not repaired by JMC and it got collapsed.
Massive water entered into the premises of a Govt School at Bassi Kallan near Bishnah. It also entered the rooms and the school authorities had to close the school. Nearly 200 mt long wall of Jammu Papper Mill at SIDCO Complex, Bari Brahamana got collapsed. The flood water entered the premises and also caused damage to the raw material and machinery of the unit.
At village Manore Gopala, Nanake Chak and Malanu in Samba at least a dozen houses were partially or fully collapsed during rain since last night. In Mareen and Hiranagar and Kathua , the water entered many houses and caused damage to the property of the people. In Chak Sajan area of Kathua, near National Highway, the water entered many houses during the day and the people held protest against the authorities.
Basohli- Bani road was closed after land slides last night. However, the traffic could be restored this evening after GREF men and machinery cleared the boulders about 25 kms short of Bani. The traffic also remained suspended for hours on old Samba Kathua road during the day today due to flood in nallahs. The traffic on Billawar road was also hit due to flood in nallahs.
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