Rains, floods damage maize crop in Poonch
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 2: While Jammu-Srinagar National Highway remained blocked for about nine hours last night, the Mughal Road was blocked after land slides during morning hours today while another dead body of a person, washed away in flooded Tarnah river in Hiranagar area of district Kathua two days ago, was recovered today.
Official sources said that after landslide in Mehar area of Ramban last night, the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway was blocked at around 9.30 pm. As the shooting stones continued for several hours in the same area therefore, the restoration work could not be launched being darkness and risk to the life of machine operators. Many being remained stranded till morning on the busy highway.
The clearance work was launched during early morning and the highway was restored at around 6.30 am on Tuesday. The stranded Shri Amarnath Ji Yatra vehicles were cleared at the first instance, the sources added.
Meanwhile, Mughal Road connecting Shopian with Poonch-Rajouri was blocked after land slide near Poshana during morning hours today. A large number of vehicles remained stranded for more than five-six hours.
“The road was restored in the afternoon. The vehicles movement was allowed at around 2 pm,” DySP Traffic, Poonch Sayed Altaf Hussain said.
Reports from Kathua said that dead body of another person, who was washed away in the flood in river Tarnah near Sallan, was recovered today. Three persons loading Tractor trolley had been washed away two days ago in the river. One body was recovered on the same day near Chakra area of Hiranagar.
During search operation today, another body trapped in the bushes was recovered about 3-4 kms down stream by police and SDRF men. It was later shifted to Hiranagar hospital. The deceased was identified as Kamal Singh, son of Punjab Singh, resident of Patyari, Sallan. Third one namely, Dev Raj alias Deva, son of Naseeb Chand, resident of Sallan was still missing.
Reports from Poonch said that rains for the past several days has wreaked havoc on the farmers as well. Due to heavy rains, the floods in the rivers turned towards the farmers’ fields, due to which the maize crop has suffered a lot.
There has been heavy damage to the crops of farmers in different parts of Kalai, Mendhar, Surankot, Chhatral, Gursai in Poonch district. Farmers said that this time the rains have caused a lot of damage to the standing crops. The flood water entered many fields and damaged maize crop in many areas.
Local farmer Mohammad Iqbal, Sharifa Bi and others said that they had hoped that this time crop would be good but their dreams were shattered. They said that they had grown maize crop with a lot of hard work for eating for the whole year but due to the natural calamity, everything got ruined.
Reports said there are hundreds of Kanals of rural areas in district Poonch which have come under the grip of flooded rivers, Nallahs and drains. The farmers appealed to the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir to provide relief to the farmers whose crops have been damaged.
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