Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 8: Panic gripped Kamala village in Ramkote area of tehsil Billawar in district Kathua today after a large piece of nearly 40-50 kanal of land has suddenly started sinking.
The development started during last mid night. The villagers noticed the land going down and sinking gradually besides the cracks developing on the walls of their houses and turned panicky. They continued to witness this development for hours together. On hearing this, a large number of people started assembling there. They noticed that nearly 300 mt wider patch of land was sinking slowly posing danger to the life of the people of nearly five families and their maize fields. They started shifting the households items of these families in trouble to the safer zone besides their cattle.
The incident created panic among the other residents of the area. The village head sounded alert and informed Sub Divisional Magistrate, Billawar and Deputy Commissioner, Kathua. Tehsildar, N K Sharma and SHO Billawar Ashwani Kumar rushed to the spot. A police party from Ramkote had already reached this Model village Kamala. They found that besides houses many trees and fields with standing crop were also sliding down. Till this evening, nearly 300 feet wider land portion had gone about 100 feet down. The houses had also partially damaged.
The local administration shifted these families to local community hall and Panchayat Ghar. The Tehsildar said that these families have been shifted to the safer places and some more families in the vicinity have been asked to remain alert in next 24 hours. He said these families were also provided free ration and tents besides financial assistance from the District Administration.
The victims whose houses have been damaged in this incident are-Mangu Ram, Pritam Lal, Ajit Kumar, Prem Lal and Mohinder. Another family of one Anant Ram has also been asked to vacate the area. The affected people are likely to get tents by tomorrow or the day after.
It is pertinent to mention here that in the year 1986, similar incident took place at this village. About 150 meters of land had sunk creating panic in the area. Till today, nobody dared to raise any construction near that piece of land. The village Sarpanch and other Panchayat members has urged the Deputy Commissioner Kathua and the Divisional Commissioner to depute a team of Geologists to study the type of land and guide the villagers as they were terrorized and under tremendous pressure due to this unfortunate development.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel