JAMMU: Two labourers were killed and three injured when a house collapsed in Nagrota late last night due to windstorm and torrential rains.
Almost all the residential areas plunged into darkness after high speed winds coupled with heavy rainfall late Tuesday night snapped power lines. At many places, the trees were uprooted and in other parts of Jammu city many electric poles could not withstand the natures’ fury.
Majority of worshippers in Jammu celebrated Eid in total darkness as Power Development Department, under the charge of Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh failed to restore power supply on Wednesday ahead of special Eid prayers.
In some areas, even transformers were found hanging precariously as they were not mounted properly. Large number of vehicles parked across the city suffered damages as temporary roof tops crashed on parked vehicles in old city area.
Senior district authorities, including Deputy Commissioner Simramjit Singh took to the social networking sites early Wednesday morning informing general masses through media persons that after power lines were snapped due to rain storm last night and PDD engineers along with IRCON staff have been deputed to rectify the snags in order to restore the power supply. Till late afternoon the power lines could not be restored due to multiple faults.
The areas which were worst affected included residential colonies Gandhi Nagar, Trikuta Nagar, Shastri Nagar, Bhatindi, Sidhra, Channi Himmat, Greater Kailash, Sainik Colony, Talab Tillo, Roop Nagar, Janipur, Bakshi Nagar, Shakti Nagar, Muthi, Domana.
In rural pockets the power lines were snapped due to uprooting of poles and in city pockets the trees fell over power lines leading to curtailment.
In old city area the situation was not rosy either.
Though partial power was restored in some areas but most of the densely populated mohallas remained powerless throughout the day.
Angry people across the city vent their ire against the PDD employees for not responding to the complaints in time.
On their part the PDD authorities shifted blame on project executing agency IRCON for not carrying out quality work on ground zero under ARAPDRP. Till late evening the power lines across Jammu province were restored in major towns but small pockets remained powerless.
Meanwhile, the boundary wall of the official residence of Health Minister Bali Bhagat at Canal Road collapsed late last night due to high velocity wind.