Many villages on Indo-Nepal border flooded, Shivpal makes aerial survey
LUCKNOW: Several villages on the India–Nepal border were flooded on Thursday as recurrent rain in the foothills of Himalayan range led to sudden rise in many rivers. These include the Sharda, Ghaghra, Gomti, Gandak, Rapti, Budhi Rapti, Kunhara, Rohini and the Kuwano river flowing from Nepal.
Hundreds of villages in Balrampur, Siddharthnagar, Shravasti, Bahraich, Sitapur and Gonda districts have been flooded.
Standing crops have been damaged and people are trapped. Meanwhile, state irrigation minister Shivpal Singh Yadav made an aerial survey of the flood affected areas of Balrampur and Siddharthnagar districts on Thursday.
He directed the officers concerned to launch relief and rescue work on war footing. He also warned them of strict action if any slackness was detected in the relief work.
Balrampur district magistrate Preeti Shukla said 140 villages in the district had been marooned and standing crop on over 18,024 hectare area had been damaged.
The swift current in the river damaged Kodari embankment and roads connecting the rural area with the district headquarters. The officers were directed to repair the damaged embankments.
CDO, Siddharthnagar, Akhilesh Tiwari said a large quantity of water was released from the Banganga barrage on Thursday. The national disaster response force (NDRF) team had been summoned to evacuate the villagers trapped in the marooned villages to safer places.
Shivpal Yadav also inspected the erosion of the embankment near Kakrahi ghat and directed the district administration to repair the embankment.