Heavy rain during the past three days in Gujarat not only caused damage worth crores, but also at least nine persons reportedly died in the State.
Though rain halted many parts of Gujarat but torrential rain had already damaged public properties as well as private properties worth crores. In Ahmedabad, most of the roads have been washed out and at many places cave-ins have been created. In fact, a 13-year-old boy drowned in one of such cave-ins on Wednesday near Gandhinagar.
People in many parts of Ahmedabad are facing problem of water-logging, especially in the eastern parts of the city. At Chamanpura and civil hospital areas, the authority had to use boats to rescue people. The situation in South Gujarat is also similar and a team of National Disaster Response Force (NSDl) has already started rescuing people in the remote areas of Valsad district.
Meanwhile, sources in the Food Corporation of India (FCI) said that hundreds of tonnes of food grains were completely soaked at Vadodara Railway Station. The FCI authority had kept wheat in open despite the ongoing monsoon season. Sources said that bags containing nearly 800 tonnes of wheat were kept under open skies with minimal protection from rainwater and sludge.
However, FCI authorities said that the stock of wheat was offloaded at the railway yard four days ago, Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) was shifting the stock from railway yard once it was offloaded. However, CWC contractor blamed the railway authorites for lack of storage facilities.
Despite heavy rain in the State, more than 120 villages in Kutch district are still facing drinking water problem and are dependent on water tankers.According to spokesperson Minister Nitin Patel, the government will continue to supply water through tankers to needy villages till the time they want this service to continue and till the time sufficient rain will not come.