On a day when teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) shifted 6,000 flood-hit families from Kolhapur and Sangli districts to safer places, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis reached out to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurppa for help in dealing with the worsening flood situation in western Maharashtra.
While the Chief Minister requested the Union Home Minister for help and support in expediting the flood rescue and relief efforts in Kolhapur and Sangli districts, Fadnavis urged his Karnataka counterpart Yediyurappa to order discharge of water from the Almatti Dam to ease the grim flood situation in western Maharashtra.
In his message sent to Singh on Tuesday, Fadnavis asked the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoH) to coordinate with NDRF, Indian Air Force (IAF), Indian Coast Guard and the Army for expediting the rescue and relief efforts in the two Western Maharashtra districts.
Responding to a request from Fadnavis, Yediyurappa agreed to discharge water from the Almatti dam in Karnataka to reduce alarmingly high inundation in Kolhapur and Sangli districts.
Meanwhile, NDRF and disaster management teams that have rushed to the flood-hit western Maharashtra shifted 6,000 marooned families — 4,000 from Sangli and 2,000 from Kolhapur — to safer places.
With many rivers, rivulets and lakes in spare, the rain-ravaged Kolhapur and Sangli districts have been witnessing floods for the past few days. Several bridges and roads are lying under thick sheets of water, isolating hundreds of villages. The authorities are finding it difficult to reach out to people in marooned villages.
Fadnavis, who is currently on a state-wide ‘Mahajanadesh Yatra’ ahead of the October 2019 State Assembly polls, reviewed the flood situation in western Maharashtra and other parts of the state from Yavatmal. He held detailed discussion with Chief Secretary Ajoy Mehta and collectors in various districts.
Later in the evening, Fadnavis announced that he would take a break from his Yatra for a day to return to Mumbai and monitor the flood situation in the state.
Meanwhile, the State Government is rushing six teams with Navy boats to Kolhapur by air, while four FRP boats of NDRF are being sent to Sangli from Pune.
The Chief Minister’s meeting at Yavatmal to review flood situation in Western Maharashtra came a day after the Opposition Congress hit out at Fadnavis for continuing with political Yatra across the state despite the flood situation in some parts of the State. Congress’ state campaign management committee chairman Nana Patole charged that the Chief Minister was busy using tax payers’ money for his “five-star” political campaign, at a time when the latter should be concentrating on flood-relief work.
Meanwhile, the disaster management teams have shifted 10,000 people to safer locations from Pune and Satara where the evacuation operations are in progress.
An estimated 50,000 have been directly or indirectly hit by the floods in urban and rural centres in these districts as rains continued to batter the region since the past few days.
In a related development, the busy Pune-Bengaluru Highway has been closed for traffic as a precautionary measure in view of the torrential rain and incidents of landslide and boulder crashes reported from areas en route.
A highest rainfall of 40 cms in 24 hours was recorded in the temple town of Trimbakeshwar in north Maharashtra, while the hill station of Mahalabeshwar in Satara district of western Maharashtra registered 38 cm of rain.
Following minor landslides and boulder crashes in south-eastern parts of the Western Maharashtra, the Central Railway has short-terminated short-originated and diverted several trains bound for destinations in South India, while the 17031 Mumbai-Hyderabad Express was cancelled on Tuesday.
IMD Mumbai, meanwhile, said that Doppler radars in Mumbai and Goa on the west coast indicated active monsoons conditions prevailing over entire South Konkan to Karnataka coast, South Central Maharashtra, with Kolhapur, Satara showing heavy clouds, and monsoons would continue in these region in the few days.