More than 5,000 marooned by flash floods in J-K

An official spokesman here said that “special troops of the Army and the State Police have been pressed into service” to rescue the marooned families. The voluntary organisations have also started their work to shift the affected families to safer places.

While the old Kathua-Jammu road was badly damaged due to flash floods, the water level in river Ujh was rising. The villages Sabay Chak, Kot Punu and Mukandpur were also faced with the threat of flash floods.

Giving details, sources said that the villages, which submerged today morening after the flash floods broke the left bank of the nullah, included Mathray Chak, Chak Charkhri, Bathal Chak, Shall Bastiau and Hore. The villagers went on the roof tops of their houses to save themselves, sources said and added that there were no casualties in the flash flood.

However, Subedar R S Chib of Mathray Chak said that a number of villagers would have washed away to Pakistan, had the flash flood hit them during night. The other people in the village also expressed the same views and criticised the district administration, especially the Flood Control Department, for not initiating preventive mesures on time.

A kacha house belonging to Shakuntla Devi collapsed at Mathray Chak. However, the inmates of the house were safe, sources added.

The tehsildar and the police visited the affected villages and shifted the marooned families to the primary school at Chak Charkri.

Jagat Ram of Mathray Chak said that the last time flash floods had broken a bank of Tarnah in 1996 and since then the villagers had been pressing the Flood Control Department to initiate precautionary measures. However, the department did nothing despite their repeated demands and even protest demonstrations, he added.

Meanwhile, the district administration has provided two kgs of atta and one kgs of rice per head to all the families staying at the middle and higher secondary schools in Hirangar. These families had migrated from Balian, Gurha, Sarkarian, Rathane Chak, Jangi Chak and Kunthal.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Commissioner Mehboob Iqbal has taken up the matter with the higher authorities to get the bund plugged at the earliest. The police have also set up a chowki in the area to monitor the situation.