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New Delhi: Heavy rains lashed parts of northern India for the third consecutive day on Monday. In the last two days, 37 people have died in rain-related incidents. Several teams of Army and NDRF have been deployed to speed up the relief and rescue operations.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to the Chief Ministers of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand about the situation and assured them of all possible help and cooperation from the Central Government. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said that Prime Minister Modi reviewed with senior ministers and officials the situation arising out of excessive rains in different parts of the country.
Flash floods and landslides claimed 18 lives in Himachal Pradesh, 9 in Punjab and Haryana, 7 in Rajasthan and 3 in Uttar Pradesh in the last two days. In North India, many rivers including the Yamuna in Delhi are in spate.
Several roads and residential areas in the area were submerged in knee-deep water. Vehicles were seen flowing in the flood at many places. Due to the record rains on Sunday, the municipal bodies also looked helpless in improving the situation. A total of 39 NDRF teams have been deployed to deal with heavy rains and floods in four states of North India. Officials said that 14 NDRF teams are working in Punjab, while a dozen teams are deployed in Himachal Pradesh, 8 in Uttarakhand and 5 in Haryana.
The Army rescued 910 students and 50 others from a private university in the state after it was waterlogged due to heavy rains in Punjab. Civil administrations in Punjab and Haryana had earlier sought help from the Army for rescue operations.
The Army has sent flood relief columns of the Western Command to assist the administration in the flood-affected areas of both the states. At the same time, 4 more people lost their lives in Shimla due to landslide in Himachal Pradesh. The Shimla-Kalka highway was blocked on Monday morning due to heavy rains in the hill state for the third consecutive day.
Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu said that 16 people had died in rain-related incidents in the state in the last two days. Sukhu said that the state has not witnessed such heavy rains in the last 50 years. He said that efforts are on to rescue 400 tourists and local people stranded in Chandratal and between Pagal and Telgi Nallah in Lahaul and Spiti.
