A cloud burst in Nepal aggravated flood situation in the state as swirling water of major rivers in eastern Uttar Pradesh inundated a large swathe of farmland in more than 884 villages spread over in nine districts of the state in which 28 people lost their lives.
More than 4 lakh people of these villages in around 22 tehsils of these districts with over one lakh hectare of agricultural land affected in the flash floods. The situation in Bahriach district is most critical where 14 people have lost their lives. “Flood situation is bad in many parts of Uttar Pradesh with Bahraich being the worst affected where over 2000 houses have been damaged.
Para-military forces have been pushed into service and army has been asked to stand by,” Chief Secretary Alok Ranjan told reporters here on Sunday. UP government has pressed in service to Army choppers for the rescue work while a team of NDRF has been rushed from Varanasi to Bahriach. Around 4800 people were rescued by the PAC and NDRF teams, Ranjan said.
“Medical teams have been rushed to Bahriach while PAC has deployed 19 motorboats and 378 boats to rescue the people,” he said. District authorities of Bahriach has demanded Rs 100 crore to meet the relief work while the state government has sanctioned Rs 3.5 crores so far. UP government has so far sanctioned Rs 51 crores for the flood relief works in the state.
UP government has announced a compensation of Rs 1.5 lakhs to the families of the deceased while the injured would receive between Rs 62,000 to Rs 43,000. Compensation for irrigated agriculture land would be Rs 9000 per hectare while for non-irrigated it would be Rs 4500 per hectare. Ex-gratia payment for house collapse would be Rs 70,000 for pucca house and Rs 40,000 for hatched house.
Ranjan said that rivers like rapti and Ghaghra are over flowing because of excess release of water from Nepal. While the Rapti is over flowing because authorities in Bhalubang, Bhairahwa and Kusum barrages in Nepal released excess water, Ghagra has swollen due to release of flood waters from Chisapani barrage in Nepal. The other terai rivers in spate are Saryu and Sharda.
Ranjan said that the flood situation is also critical in Sharvasti district where around 60,000 population in 117 villages of 2 tehsils were affected in the flash floods. Two deaths were reported in the floods so far. ‘’The water level in Sharvasti is decreasing,’’ the Chief Secretary said. In Sitapur, the situation is also serious where 107 villages of 3 tehsils were marooned affecting over 99,000 people. Four deaths were also reported from the district due to floods.
But on the other hand the water level in Balrampur district is increasing where 76 villages of three tehsils were affected by the floods. Around 660 people have been rescued by the PAC. In lakhimpur Kheri district 157 villages of 5 tehsils were affected with reports of seven deaths so far. One team of the NDRF is already stationed there for the past few days with more than 200 houses have been damaged.
The situation in Gonda and Barbanki is also serious as 15 villages of 2 tehsils and 78 villages of 3 tehsils respectively were affected due to floods. Ten villages of Faizabad and 13 villages of Azamgarh were also partially affected in the floods. Ranjan said that engineers of the irrigation department are monitoring the situation round the clock as this water might inundate Santkabir Nagar and Ballia. The CS said that in several areas, the flash floods have washed away electric poles and transformers.