Rain havoc continues as flood threat looms over parts of UP
LUCKNOW :Heavy rain continued to heap misery on UPites, disrupting normal life in various parts of state besides claiming 16 more lives on Monday, taking the rain-related death toll to 86 in the last four days, officials said.
The continuous rain made several areas of Lucknow, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Kanpur, Allahabad, Agra, Meerut, Bareilly, Faizabad, Etawah, Ghaziabad and Saharanpur look like huge ponds.Threat of floods also loomed over some areas of the state. The incessant rain also disrupted road, train and flight services besides causing power outages in parts of some cities.
The meteorological department has, meanwhile, predicted heavy rainfall in central, west and east UP in next 24 hours.
In the last four days, maximum 11 deaths have been reported from Saharanpur district. On Monday, six people were injured in a house collapse in Mangalpur area of Kanpur Dehat while a girl, Sabia (7) died in another incident of house collapse in Fatehpur.
Relief commissioner Sanjay Kumar said, “At l east 86 people have died and 84 injured in rainrelated incidents in the last four days. About 472 houses and hutments have also collapsed while 44 cattle heads also perished in the rain.”
He said the DM concerned had been directed to launch relief and rescue operations on a war footing. “Officers have been asked to provide financial and medical aid to flood-affected people,” Kumar said. A flood-threat emerged in Gonda district after increasing level of the Ghaghra eroded a portion of Elgin Charsadi embankment in Karnailganj tehsil. Flood water inundated half-a-dozen villages located near the embankment.
Several villages in Muzaffarnagar, Lakhimpur Kheri, Mirzapur, Mathura, Ballia and Barabanki districts were marooned with the rise in water level of Yamuna, Sharda, Ganga and Ghaghra rivers, respectively.
ONE GIRL EACH IN KANPUR AND FATEHPUR DIED AFTER BEING BITTEN BY SNAKES WHICH ENTERED THEIR HOUSES WITH RAINWATER
An officer at the irrigation department said fresh areas in flood-prone districts were likely to be flooded.
Ghaghra was flowing above danger level at Eligin Bridge in Barabanki while Yamuna crossed danger level at Mawi in Muzaffarnagar.
Shrada and Ghaghra rivers also crossed danger marks at Palia Kalan in Lakhimpur Kheri and Ayodhya in Faizabad district respectively.
According to irrigation department officials, Ganga was flowing near danger mark at Narora in Bulandshahr, Yamuna was near danger level at Prayaghat in Mathura and Ghaghra also flowed near danger level at Turtipar in Ballia district.
The water level of Gomti, Kuwano, Rapti, Rohini, Kunahra and Gandak, too, maintained an increasing trend in Sitapur, Balrampur, Gorakhpur, Maharajganj, Siddharthnagar and Kushinagar.
An irrigation department officer said the districts that received high rainfall in the last 24 hours included Gonda (140 mm), Jaunpur (120.6 mm), Etawah (132 mm), Auriaya (129 mm), Basti (73.8 mm), Ballia (58 mm), Ghazipur (59.2 mm) and Kushinagar (72 mm).
Districts of Bundelkhand region, which were earlier in the grip of drought, received heavy rainfall.
Venkatesh Dutta, a faculty member in the department of environment of management and planning at the Babasaheb Bimrao Ambedkar University (BBAU), said over a dozen big rivers passed through Uttar Pradesh and most of them brought floods during monsoon.