Four-laning work causes cracks in houses in Ramban village

JAMMU: Residents of Halwagan village in Sujmatna panchayat of Ramban’s Ramsoo area are living under constant fear as their houses have developed cracks and their landholdings are sinking due to the ongoing work for the four-laning of the Jammu-Srinagar national highway.

Road-widening work underway in Ramban district. Inderjeet Singh

Arteev Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 20

Residents of Halwagan village in Sujmatna panchayat of Ramban’s Ramsoo area are living under constant fear as their houses have developed cracks and their landholdings are sinking due to the ongoing work for the four-laning of the Jammu-Srinagar national highway.

Villagers blamed the Hindustan Construction Company engaged by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), saying their safety would be at risk if the administration did not take immediate corrective measures.

The district administration, however, has taken the issue seriously and constituted a high-level fact-finding committee, comprising revenue officials, besides rushing senior officials to the village to ensure “round-the-clock” monitoring of the situation.

It is not clear as to how many families are affected in the area but the administration has called an important meeting of senior officials from the district administration, revenue, NHAI and local representatives to resolve the issue.

“We are living under constant threat of sinking of land due to which our houses have developed cracks. We are spending sleepless nights as nobody knows what will happen due to constant sliding of land in the area. The problem has been caused to the ongoing work of four-laning undertaken by the company,” residents alleged.

Basharat Hussain, Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC), Ramban, admitted that some families, living adjacent to the highway, were affected. “A committee of revenue officials headed by the tehsildar of Ramsoo has been asked to hold an inquiry into the matter and submit a report. The Subdivisional Magistrate (SDM) of Ramsoo has been posted in the village and he is constantly monitoring the situation. The SDM has been directed to immediately shift the families in case they feel any danger,” the ADC said.

Showkat Aijaz Bhat, Ramban Deputy Commissioner, said he had called a meeting of all senior officials on Thursday to review the situation where the remedial measures would be finalised.