Heavy rains batter north India; Army, NDRF step up rescue ops
Nine people have died in rain-related incidents in Punjab and Haryana as incessant showers battered the two states on Monday.
NEW DELHI: Incessant rains played havoc for the third consecutive day on Monday in parts of north India, particularly Himachal Pradesh where landslides claimed four more lives even as the Army and NDRF teams stepped in to intensify the relief and rescue operations.
Nine people have died in rain-related incidents in Punjab and Haryana as incessant showers battered the two states on Monday. In Rajasthan, rains claimed seven lives while UP reported three deaths.
Several rivers, including the Yamuna in Delhi, in north India are in spate. In cities and towns across the region, many roads and residential areas were submerged in knee-deep water with the civic system unable to hold on in the face of record rains on Sunday.
Debris floats through a street during flash floods in Mandi district; (left) swollen Beas river flows in spate
Twenty people stranded in tourist town of Manali were rescued but more than 200 others were stuck across various parts of the hill state.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken with the chief ministers of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand about the situation and assured them of all help and support from the central government.
Modi also spoke with senior ministers and officials and took stock of the situation in rain-affected regions.
20 rescued as rains leave 300 stranded in HP
Twenty people stranded in Himachal Pradesh’s tourist town of Manali were rescued but about 300 others were stranded across various parts of the hill state as heavy rain wreaked havoc for the third day on Monday.
The state is bracing for another day of downpour with the meteorological department issuing a “red” alert for “extremely heavy rain” on Monday, a day after heavy rain pounded the state, triggering landslides, damaging houses and leaving several people dead.
Using anchored rope, harness and crane, a team of the 14th battalion of the NDRF rescued six people stranded in Nagwayin village due to the rise in the water level of Beas River in a late-night operation on Sunday, officials said.
In another operation, the Home Guards rescued 20 people from Manali on Monday, officials said, adding around 300 persons were stranded in various parts of the state. Officials said rail operations on the Shimla-Kalka route, a UNESCO world heritage site, have been suspended till Tuesday as landslides blocked the track at several places while educational institutions across the state were ordered to remain shut on Monday and Tuesday.
Meanwhile, rains battered parts of Punjab and Haryana for the third consecutive day on Monday with authorities working round the clock to reach out to people in the worst-hit places in hours of crisis. According to the meteorological department, it has been raining in many parts of Punjab and Haryana since morning.
In view of the prevailing situation, Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar cancelled all his pre-scheduled programmes for the day and summoned an emergency meeting of senior officials of various departments, including Home, Disaster Management and Urban Local Bodies, officials said.
Jaipur: Intense monsoon rains brought normal life to a standstill in several parts of eastern and central Rajasthan, flooding out roads, rail tracks, low-lying residential areas and even hospitals. More showers are expected to lash around a dozen districts on Tuesday as well. A 7-year-old boy was swept away in the gushing waters of an overflowing drain in the Murlipura area in Jaipur, where several areas reeled from waterlogging. Disaster management and relief department secy P C Kishan said that very heavy rainfall occurred in areas of Sirohi, Ajmer, Pali and Karauli districts but there was no flood-like situation. Heavy rainfall was recorded in 10 districts, including Jaipur, Jalore, Bharatpur, Udaipur & Ajmer.
Jabalpur: Four persons stuck on an island in the swollen Narmada river near Bhedaghat in Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur district were rescued by the NDRF after a more than 13-hour operation, police said. The four persons, belonging to Garhapurva in Jabalpur town, went to the spot for fishing on Sunday afternoon, Bhedaghat police station in-charge Shafiq Khan said. They got stuck on the island following a sudden rise in the Narmada river level due to heavy rainfall in the upstream areas, Additional Superintendent of Police (Rural) Shivesh Singh Baghel said. The stranded persons were provided food and life jackets through a drone in the night, he said.
New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday announced that evacuation of people from low-lying areas around Yamuna will start once the river touches the 206-metre mark, while assuring the people that experts have said the flood situation might not arise in the national capital.
After holding a meeting over the torrential rains and the rising Yamuna water levels, Kejriwal addressed a press conference, stating that the government was closely monitoring the situation and was fully prepared to tackle it.
“The unprecedented rain caused problems to people and Delhi’s system was not able to withstand it. Every year after rainfall, some vulnerable areas are waterlogged and the water is drained out in a couple of hours. But the 153 mm of rainfall was unprecedented and an event which happened in nearly 40 years,” he said.
The Yamuna on Monday inched closer to the warning mark in Delhi as Haryana released more water into the river from the Hathnikund barrage amid persistent rains in the upper catchment areas. The water level is anticipated to rise to 205.5 metres between 10 am and 12 noon on Tuesday, crossing the danger mark of 205.33 metres.