Heavy rains lashed Jharkhand in the past 24 hours, causing water-logging in parts of the State including Latehar, where water from a river overflowed on a diversion road and resulted in traffic congestion for several hours. A few minutes of rain on Saturday morning led to water logging in many areas of the city, showing a trailer of possible challenges the district administration might have to face here if the Meteorological Centre’s predictions of heavy rainfall in the days to come prove to be true.
After a dry spell that lasted for more than a week, Ranchi on Saturday witnessed 5mm rainfall, while Jamshedpur recorded 4mm rainfall till 5pm, figures with the Ranchi Meteorological Centre said.
Weather scientists from the Meteorological Centre in Ranchi on Saturday said that the State was likely to witness more than average rainfall during the next fortnight as a result of a low pressure system over the Bay of Bengal.
The low pressure system is likely to become more intense and concentrate into a depression in the next 48 hours, weather scientists said.
Director of Ranchi MET Centre, S D Kotal said, “According to our prediction, Jharkhand will witness heavy rainfall accompanied by thunder and lightning during the next two weeks or so. It is likely to make up for the rainfall deficit in Jharkhand witnessed during the first month of the season.”
The MET Centre on Saturday calculated a rainfall deficit of 38 per cent across Jharkhand. Prior to the advent of the monsoon this year, the MET Centre had predicted that the State will witness 91 per cent of its ideal share of rainfall during monsoon. “We had earlier predicted that Jharkhand will witness rainfall only nine per cent less than normal. It is quite possible that heavy rains will make up for the deficit to a large extent in the next fortnight,” Kotal said.
While the weather gods have not been kind to the State this monsoon, the lack of rainfall has fast emerged as a political issue with the opposition parties demanding the State to declare entire Jharkhand drought hit. The Government, on the other hand, has decided to wait till August 15 and pitch in with its assistance and support to the farmers if the conditions do not change by then. As per figures with the Directorate of Agriculture here, the sowing process for paddy, the most largely grown crop here, has not yet begun in at least 10 of 24 districts.
The situation is particularly alarming as farmers in at least 18 of 24 districts here are still recovering from the jolts of a drought last year.
Parts of Latehar, Garhwa, Palamu, Ranchi, Gumla and Chatra witnessed moderate to heavy rainfall on Saturday morning and evening, officials from the MET Centre in Ranchi said.