JMC blames massive encroachments for rain damages

While overnight heavy rainfall in Jammu region played havoc in certain areas, the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) today said that the damage in some areas was due to encroachment by people on flood channels and streams.
"Several houses were damaged whereas boundary wall of many houses also caved in following heavy rainfall that lashed Jammu region last night," an official said.
Some roads, pipelines, electric infrastructure suffered damages in various parts of the Jammu city. Waterlogging has taken places in several parts of the city.
Jammu witnessed heavy rains for two to three hours in the morning and at certain places the rain water entered into several houses, thus causing damage to the households.

The Jammu railway station also witnessed waterlogging and morning trains were delayed due to it.
The government, however, says that the damage was caused due to the large scale encroachment by people on the water channels and streams.

"The damage caused was due to blockage of water channels by land grabbers and encroachments in Jammu," Soujanya Sharma, chairman of Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) said.
He said that it was the people who should have taken note of it before encroaching on water channels and blocking them by illegal construction.
He said that massive encroachment has been done in areas like Bathindi, Narwal, Kasim Nagar, Sunjwan, Rajiv Nagar, Gorkha Nagar, Christian colony and several other areas which led to the flooding in these areas after the rains.

Jammu MP, Jugal Kishore Sharma said investigation needs to be conducted on the land grabbers and encroachers.
"We will investigate encroachment on the land by these people. If they had not encroached on the water channels, the extent of the damage would have been less," Sharma said.