by Mir Suneem
Srinagar
As the Srinagar- Jammu highway remains closed for the third day, the local community at Panthal area of Ramban district helped the stranded passengers by providing them food, shelter and other basic amenities to survive in the situation.
On Thursday when thousands of passengers were stranded in the Maroog Panthal area of Ramban district, the Sarpanch of the area along with the local villagers provided their services and accommodated the passengers in their personal houses in the village.
“It is our duty to help the people in despair and we feel privileged that we can play some role in easing their troubles. In the last two days, we have provided food to more than a thousand people,” said the Sarpanch of Maroog Panthal, Zahoor Ahmad.
He appreciated his villagers for respecting his will and accommodating the passengers in their residential houses. “I had at least 100 people in my house for the last two days and each villager took around 10-15 passengers in theirs,” said the Sarpanch.
The passengers who were stranded in Panthal and had to stay in an under-construction tunnel of Ramban said they are thankful to the villagers for helping them.
“I am stuck in this area for the last two days with my family and at least 800 other people but we are grateful that the Sarpanch and other people comforted us and opened the doors of their houses in the village for us to stay,” said Sheikh Shayak, a passenger who was coming from Jammu to Srinagar and was stranded in Panthal.
According to the reports, over 1700 vehicles are stranded in the Jammu- Srinagar highway due to landslides and bad weather conditions.
Meanwhile, the Sarpanch said that on Friday afternoon, he and his volunteers helped around 230 passenger vehicles to cross when the road was cleared.
