Headlines
Nightlong rain keeps Kashmiris on edge
Srinagar, April 2
Incessant overnight rain on
Thursday kept thousands of locals on tenterhooks, though the water level
in Jhelum and all other major rivers of the valley did not rise to
danger level.
"Today morning, the water level of the Jhelum river
was 12 feet at Sangam (Anantnag). It was 15.15 feet at Ram Munshibagh
(Srinagar) and 11 feet at Asham (Bandipora). At all these places, the
river is flowing below the danger mark," a senior official of the flood
control department told IANS on Thursday in Srinagar.
Despite
this, thousands of locals living in low lying areas and along banks of
rivers and other water bodies remained on tenterhooks throughout the
night .
"We have been awake for the whole night looking anxiously
at the muddy water flowing in the river," said Mehrajuddin, a resident
of Abi Guzar area in Srinagar city.
During September 2014
floods, Abi Guzar, adjacent to city centre Lal Chowk, had been
inundated by flood waters as the embankment of the Jhelum river had
caved in.
Police in Kothibagh sub-division of the city under
whose jurisdiction areas like Abi Guzar, Residency Road, Maisuma and
Kralkhud fall, patrolled the river bank throughout the night with
searchlights to watch for any breaches.
Similarly, in all other
areas situated close to the Jhelum river in Anantnag, Srinagar,
Baramulla and Bandipora districts officials of the local flood control
department and the state police maintained nightlong vigil.
Teams
of state disaster response force (SDRF) and national disaster response
force (NDRF) maintained vigil at vulnerable places along the river banks
and also plugged some minor breaches those occurred during the night.
More
than 2500 people from different flood prone areas have been shifted to
safer places as a precautionary measure during the last 24 hours in
Jammu and Kashmir.
Sonam Lotus, director of the local Met office
told IANS that inclement weather is likely to continue for another 24
hours in the state with possibilities of moderate to heavy rain at many
places.
"From tomorrow onwards, we are expecting improvement in
the overall weather conditions as the Western Disturbance causing the
present conditions is we akening," Lotus said on Thursday.
Meanwhile,
the strategic Jammu-Srinagar highway which was opened for one-way light
vehicular traffic yesterday was again shut due to landslides in Ramban
district of Jammu region.
More than five hundred passenger
vehicles are stranded at different points at safer places on the
highway, officials said IANS in Srinagar.
"There have been fresh
landslides on the road at Magarkoot and some other places. The
landslides are being cleared so that stranded vehicles are cleared to
pass. No traffic will, however, be allowed to move on the highway from
either Srinagar or Jammu today (Thursday)," a senior traffic department
official said on Thursday