After some anxious moments, the district administration rescued all the 52 residents, including 15 children of Lapra village in Yamunanagar district of Haryana, who were stranded on an island in the Yamuna river.
The river has been in spate ever since heavy rains lashed the northern parts of the country, where the monsoon arrived at least two weeks ahead of schedule.
These people had been using the island for cultivation of musk melons for some years. They got stranded when torrential rains forced the authorities to release extra water from the Hathni Kund barrage. Some reports indicated that the Indian Air Force’s services were taken to evacuate the villagers.
Reports from Yamunanagar and an official release that quoted Additional Chief Secretary and Financial Commissioner for revenue and disaster management, Krishna Mohan, as saying that the Army at Ambala had been kept ready and alerts had been sounded for Yamunanagar, Karnal, Panipat and Sonepat districts.
The Yamuna had recorded eight lakh cusecs of water flow at Hathni Kund barrage on Monday morning as against 4.5 lakh cusecs the previous day.
The rainfall on June 15 and 16 in Yamunanagar had broken all previous records for the last 11 years.
The Haryana administration has said that funds would not be a hindrance in relief and rescue operations. A sum of Rs. 94.50 lakh had been released to the Yamunanagar district administration, which already had sufficient number of boats and equipment to prevent any loss of life and reduce damage.