Several houses, acres of agricultural land inundated
Twenty-four persons trapped in flash floods were rescued on Sunday by the police, the Army and the locals in Samba, Kathua and Jammu districts, where dozens of houses and several acres of agricultural land are still inundated. “Twenty-four people and cattle were rescued from Ujhm Basantar and Tawi rivers in Samba, Jammu and Kathua,” officials said.
JAMMU: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, in his capacity as Planning Minister, has approved four major sectors as priority areas for the year 2012-13 to utilize Rs 700 crore, which the Planning Commission of India had given to the State Government under the Prime Minister’s Re-construction Plan (PMRP) during July 13 meeting with Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
Seven people including two minor girls were killed in separate incidents due to flash floods and landslides while property worth lakhs of rupees was damaged due to rains in Jammu region.
SAMBA: Eight buffaloes were killed while four others fell ill after they consumed poisonous water from a nallah coming from SIDCO Industrial complex Samba to Basantar river this afternoon. The members of the Gujjar community whose cattle were grazing near river Basantar came to know about the matter and rushed there. They found six animals dead and about half a dozen others writhing in pain on the ground. They lodged their strong protest and alleged that their cattle died after they drank polluted poisonous water coming from about twenty factories located in SIDCO complex Samba.
JAMMU: A mega Rs 1008 crore water supply project is being prepared to cater to the need of drinking water by lifting it from river Chenab near Akhnoor for the Greater Jammu while the city is still facing a shortage of nearly 3 MGL (30 lakh gallons) of water per day. Authoritative sources told Excelsior that the State Cabinet headed by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has already given a nod to the project which will be completed in two phases. The project has been designed to cater to the need of water supply for the Greater Jammu for the next 30 years. The river Tawi has been found inadequate to meet the demand of water supply for over 13 lakh souls or more in next one decade.
JAMMU: At least six persons were killed in land slides, house collapse and flash floods as the heavy rain created havoc in the region since last evening.
The traffic was disrupted on several roads for some time in the region as flash flood in various nallahs and land slides put the normal life out of gear. The traffic on busy Samba-Mansar- Udhampur-Srinagar road came to grind halt after land slides hit the road at Papar Morh near Nud last mid night. The traffic on the road could be restored only around 10.30 am today.
SRINAGAR: The State Level Sanctioning Committee (SLSC) headed by Chief Secretary Madhav Lal, approved the Action Plan 2012-13 for Rs 112.08 crore under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) in a meeting held here Thursday.
Under the Plan Rs 12 crore has been earmarked for implementation of vegetable initiative for urban clusters of the state, Rs 50 crore for Saffron and Rs 14.91 crore for Development of Diary, Goatry, fisheries, sheep and poultry.
Environmentalists are demanding greater environmental management of religious tourism.
The death of 98 pilgrims in the Amarnath Yatra has highlighted the need to ensure better man-management in these ecologically-fragile regions. Already, three lakh pilgrims have visited the Amarnath shrine while the number in 2011 was around 7.5 lakhs. Environmentalist Prof. Vikram Soni of the Jamia Milia University points out that such large numbers of yatris are unsustainable given the high altitude and the danger of landslides hitting this area which could result in heavy loss of life.
JAMMU: In order to provide respite to the people from the acute power crisis, Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah today sanctioned Rs 200 crore for purchase of additional power and Rs 12 crore for speedy repair of damaged transformers and other system improvement works. With this decision, the availability of electricity will increase by 250 Mega Watts (MW) and consumers will heave sigh of relief from the power curtailments up to large extent from tomorrow itself when the Power Development Department will issue fresh electricity supply schedule.
A mild intensity quake shook Kashmir Valley in the wee hours on Wednesday but there was no report of any damage due to it. "An earthquake of magnitude 4.2 was recorded at 1.37 AM. The epicentre of the tremor was in Hindukush region of Afghanistan," an official of Disaster Management Cell said.
He said there was no report of any damage caused by the tremor in the Valley. Kashmir Valley lies in highly active Seismic Zone V and has been experiencing slight to moderate earthquakes at regular intervals.
