Haldwani: Rainy conditions continued to become a cause of worry for the people in the Kumaon region, though the district administrations in the region, have already been put on high alert by the Government following the possibility of heavy rains as predicted by the meteorological department.
Though no untoward incident was reported from any parts of the region so far, incessant rain that occurred in many parts of the region hit normal life and hampered relief operations, particularly in disaster-hit Pithoragarh district. “We have evacuated about 1,000 people stranded in different disaster affected areas in Pithoragarh; it is believed many people still remain stranded in these disaster-hit areas. But due to bad weather conditions, it has sometime become difficult to evacuate people with the help of helicopters, too, in Pithoragarh,” RK Sudhanshu, Commissioner, the Kumaon division, told The Pioneer.
“Yet efforts are on to mitigate the hardships of the people living in the disaster-affected areas,” the Commissioner said, adding apart from some essential commodities, “we have dropped over 400 quintal food grains in the disaster hit areas in Pithoragarh so far.” Meanwhile, keeping in view the increasing water level of local Gola river in Haldwani, the Nainital district administration has also appealed to the people living along the bank of the said river to move to safer places so that loss to lives and properties could be prevented.
Keeping in view increasing level of the Gola river and possibility of occurrence of rains, RD Paliwal, City Magistrate, Haldwani, also visited some parts of the Gola river area on Friday and asked the people living along the river bank to shift to safer places. He also asked the officials concerned to prevent illegal collection of riverbed materials from the Gola river.