Jammu, Aug 12: Torrential rains that lashed almost all parts of Jammu division on Tuesday affected life in low-lying areas of Jammu due to waterlogging and related aspects, while landslides in hilly areas disrupted road connectivity at several places in Udhampur, Reasi, Kathua, besides Rajouri and Poonch districts of Pir Panjal region.

Heavy rains also led to increased water levels in the Tawi River, posing a threat to people living on and along its banks, particularly those living in Niki Tawi and Beli Charana area.

As a precautionary measure, the district administration has asked them to move to safer places.

“Water level in Tawi is rising continuously, so the people living on the banks have been asked to relocate to safer places along with their livestock,” officials said.

In this connection, the Police personnel could be seen alerting people and making announcements asking them to vacate and relocate to secure places.

In Reasi district, incessant rains have severely damaged Reasi-Kheral-Gupt Kashi road.

Locals said that due to the damaged road, over 200 students could not attend their schools for the past two days.

In the wake of the forecast of heavy rains triggering landslides and flash floods on August 12, in several districts of the Jammu region, including Reasi, the district administration had ordered the closure of schools in Reasi district on Tuesday.

According to Meteorological Department officials, Reasi district between 8:30 am on August 11 and 6:30 am on August 12 registered 280.5 mm rainfall, while Jammu and Samba districts recorded 96 mm rainfall during the same period.

Kathua district registered 148 mm of rainfall during that period.

On the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway, the flooded road disrupted traffic briefly at the Jagti stretch.

Srinagar, Aug 12: Jammu and Kashmir Anti-Corruption Bureau has achieved a major success in extracting one of the major land scams in J&K, wherein custodian land in Asarwan, Mishriwala and Bhalwal areas of Jammu district has been found usurped by the land mafia in connivance with Form Alf Holders and the officers/officials of Custodian and Revenue departments.

A statement issued by the agency said that inputs were received that custodian land in thousands of kanals situated at Asarwan, Mishriwala and Bhalwal Jammu, has been fraudulently grabbed by the land grabbers/gangsters in connivance with the revenue and police officers/officials. The revenue records have been tempered and land has been sold to various persons.

On the basis of the inputs received by ACB verification was initiated and on the basis of the verification conducted earlier it was found that more than 600 kanals of custodian land was shown allotted to the displaced persons through fraudulent means by the officers/officials of revenue department in connivance with the land grabbers/ Form Alaf holders. Accordingly, 16 case FIRs already stand registered by the ACB in which the investigation is in progress.

The statement said that during the course of verification it has been found that displaced persons from POJK were already allotted land in their favour but even then kith and kin of these families although not entitled as already allotted land being Form Alaf holders, in connivance with the concerned Patwaries/ Girdawars/ Naib Tehsildars/ Tehsildars of Revenue Department got mutations of additional land at Bhalwal area of District Jammu attested in their favour either without any Govt./ PRO order or on fake Govt./ PRO order. During verification it has also been found that no such orders of allotment of land were issued by the office of the PRO. These persons after getting mutation of lands in their favour alienated the said land directly or through their attorney holders/ conduits to various persons by resorting to fraudulent means, thereby causing a huge loss to the government exchequer.

Owing to the establishment of prima facie, nexus of the criminal elements/ land grabbers/ Form Alaf holders and the Revenue officers/officials in alienation of about 150 kanals of Custodian land through fraudulent means, ACB has now registered another 08 formal case FIRs in P/S ACB Central J&K for in-depth investigation under the provisions of J&K Prevention of Corruption Act, criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and fraud against (1) Suresh Sharma S/o Ved Parkash R/o Kangrail Jammu the then Patwari, Patwar Halqa Barn, Tehsil Balwal, (2) Mohit Gupta S/o Shri Funny Bushan Gupta R/o H .No. 95, Suraksha Vihar, Paloura Top Jammu the then Tehsildar Balwal, (3) Kuldeep Singh S/o Aya Singh R/o House No. 83/84 Bakshi Nagar Jammu, (4) Anjali Slathia W/o Shri Balvinder Singh R/o Bhopur, Tehsil Akhnoor District Jammu, (5) Navjot Singh S/O Ajit Singh R/o Ranjan Partly Gharota Jammu the then Patwari, Patwar Halqa Barn, Tehsil Balwal, (6) Farooq Khan S/o Mohd Sher R/o Mangalnar Manjakot, Rajouri the then Tehsildar Balwal, (7) Faryad Ahmed the then Patwari, Patwar Halqa Kot, Tehsil Jammu, (😎 Narain Singh (now dead) the then Tehsildar Jammu, (9) Deedar Singh S/o Inder Singh R/o Batala Tehsil Bhimber A/p Chatha Farm Jammu, (10) Omkar Singh S/o Shri Paras Ram R/o village lower Muthi, Tehsil Jammu North District Jammu , (11) Bashir Ahmad the then Patwari, Patwar Halqa Raipur Domana (12) Mohd Aslam the then Girdawar circle Misriwala, (13) Avtar Singh the then Tehsildar Jammu, (14) Sat Pal S/O Nanak Chand R/O Gadi Garh Jammu, (15) Shabir Ahmed the then Patwari, Patwar Halqa Kot, (16) Iqbal Zargar Girdawar circle Balwal, (17) Guldarshan Singh the then Naib Tehsildar Balwal (now dead), (18) Kamal Kohli S/O Madan Lal R/o Hardo Muthi Rajbagh Kathua, (19) Shakeel Ahmad the then Patwari, Patwar Halqa Balwal, (20) Aqeel Ahmad the then Naib Tehsildar Balwal, (21) Jaspal Singh S/o Ram Singh R/o village Choura District Gurdaspur Punjab A/P Rajbagh Kathua, (22) Rashpal Singh the then Patwari, Patwar Halqa Balwal, (23) Hans Raj the then Girdawar circle Balwal , (24) Farooq Khan the then Tehsildar Balwal, (25) Mangat Singh S/o Atter Singh R/o Near Janta Floour Mill Gangyal, Jammu, (26) Kulwant Singh S/o Faqeer Singh R/o Suhawada, Darap, Sehora Tehsil Bishnah, Jammu, (27) Sham Singh the then Naib Tehsildar Balwal and others.