low-lying villages are being inundated with several embankments of Ganga having been damaged. Besides, the rivers flowing through Buggawala, Bhagwanpur and Roorkee are in spate after the spells of heavy showers lashed the district over the past two days.
On Tuesday night, a dumper truck loaded with sand and stones was caught in the current of a swollen river in Buggawala. The driver Akram, a resident of Fatehpur, fell in the river while trying to climb into the roof of the truck to save his life. However, the flood relief team and the villagers rescued him and sent him to the primary health centre. His assistant Pradeep Kumar jumped out and swam to safety. Meanwhile, water entered the low- lying villages with the embankments of Ganga getting damaged in the aftermath of the heavy rain over the past two days. The villagers were forced to keep awake all through the nights, fearing to be swept away by the gushing water. Water entered inside Piran Kaliyar shrine as well.
With the BHEl under-bridge under waist deep water, traffic was re-routed from old Ranipur More area. Subsequently, it took the commuters over three hours to cross a distance of 1 km. Vehicles were seen stuck bumper to bumper from Ranipur More till Rishikul area.
The seasonal rivers Ratmau and Peel are in spate. The badly affected villages are Jogawala, Sahejpur, Badhedi Rajputana, Padartha Gurjar basti, Sikandarpur, Jamalpur kalan, Rasoolpur, Kangri and Shayampur.
Swami Shivanand, the founder of Matri Sadan, has held the rampant building of dams on the rivers in the hills along with quarrying of Ganga riverbeds responsible for the sorry state of things in the state. “The Tehri dam and other hydro power projects on Ganga and its tributaries would spell disaster for the state in the coming days. Besides, as far as the urban areas are concerned the situation is such that there is no place for the rain water to go. It is not for the politicians and the technocrats to correct things. The scientists should be involved to evolve ways to save the state from the imminent disaster,” the seer added.