Vaishno Devi landslide: J-K CM asks why pilgrims not stopped despite bad weather warning
Jammu (PTI): Why did officials not stop Vaishno Devi pilgrims from treading the track when there was a warning of inclement weather, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah questioned on Wednesday as the toll in the landslide rose to 32.
The pilgrimage to the shrine was suspended when the mountainside gave way and stones, boulders, and rocks came hurtling down around 3 pm on Tuesday, catching people unawares. Rescuers pulled out more bodies from under the debris a day after the disaster struck the route to the hilltop shrine in Jammu and Kashmir's Reasi district.
Talking to reporters here, the chief minister said, "We will have to talk about it later. When we knew about the weather, should we not have taken certain steps to save those lives? The weather warning had come to us a few days ago."
Posing questions for officials, he further said, "Why were these people on the track? Why were they not stopped? Why were they not moved to a safe place? This has to be discussed later. We feel sorrow over the loss of 29 to 30 precious lives."
The landslide struck at a point about halfway along the winding 12-km trek from Katra to the shrine.
There are two routes up to the shrine. While the yatra had been suspended on the Himkoti trek route since Tuesday morning, it was going on the old route till 1.30 pm when authorities decided to suspend it till further orders in view of the torrential rain.
The water level in the swollen rivers across Jammu showed signs of receding, but the flood alert mark was breached by the Jhelum in Anantnag and Srinagar, and water entered several residential areas, prompting authorities to assure residents that they are monitoring the situation and people should not panic.
Massive damage has been reported to public infrastructure, including several key bridges, private houses and commercial establishments, due to overflowing of water bodies and flash floods across the Union Territory, officials said.
Telecom services also got partially restored after remaining suspended for over 22 hours, while Chief Minister Omar Abdullah rushed to Jammu from Srinagar to personally review the situation in the region.
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Mizoram class 12 results out, pass percentage at 87.67
Aizawl (PTI): Mizoram recorded a pass percentage of 87.67 in the class 12 board examinations on Wednesday, with boys scoring marginally higher than girls,
Across the Arts, Science, and Commerce streams, boys secured an 87.7 per cent success rate, while girls followed closely at 87.66 per cent, according to the results published by the Mizoram Board of School Education (MBSE).
Of the 12,243 students who sat for the examinations held between February and March, 10,734 passed, 1,394 could not, and 115 qualified for compartmental examinations.
Academic performance was strongest in the Commerce stream, which saw a 90.51 per cent success rate among 759 candidates.
The Science stream followed with 89.24 per cent pass rate out of 2,770 students who appeared for the exam, while the Arts stream, with 87,14 students, recorded a pass percentage of 86.93.
In terms of institutional performance, the results revealed that deficit schools, which receive regular government grants, maintained their status as top performers with an average 93.80 per cent pass rate across all streams, followed by private schools at 91.55 per cent, while state-run schools recorded a success rate 83.13 per cent.
