Though the water level in the Kagina came down after the rains subsided for the second consecutive day on Friday, the Bhima continues to be in spate owing to the heavy discharge of water from Maharashtra reservoirs.
Since the water discharge from Ujjani and Veer reservoirs in Maharashtra increased to around 7 lakh cusecs on Thursday night owing to the heavy rainfall in the Bhima catchment areas upstream, the inflow at Sonna barrage across the Bhima at Afzalpur taluk in Kalaburagi district rose to 5.85 lakh cusecs on Friday morning and then to 6.3 lakh cusecs by 5 p.m.
The same amount of water was released to the river, and tracts of farm fields with standing crops along its course in Afzalpur, Chittapur, Jewargi, Kalaburagi, and Shahbad taluks.
Residents along the banks anxiously watched the overflowing Bhima and prepared to move to safer places. In many places, the floodwater had already entered the villages. The entire Muttuga village and over 500 houses at Honagunta village in Shahabad taluk were flooded on Thursday night and residents struggled to get drinking water and food.
The disruption of mobile connectivity and electricity supply continued on Friday as well.
Since most of the major bridges in the district were already submerged, the connectivity between villages and towns remained cut across the district and the vehicular movement disrupted.
Thousands of trucks were found parked on either side of bridges and highway-side at different places.
Trucks were seen parked for kilometres together on the Bidar-Srirangapatana national highway near Saradagi village and between Shahbad and Bhankur.
The Malkhed Bridge remained under the Kagina waters on Friday also cutting the connectivity between Hyderabad and Kalaburagi. In many flood-hit villages, relief centres were opened.
Upon the direction of Deputy Commissioner Vijaya Jyothsna, several district-level officers camped at the mini-Vidhana Soudha coordinating with the field staff.
Ms. Jyothsna also held meeting with key officials at midnight and took stock of the situation.
Ms. Jyothsna, Kalaburagi Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer P. Raja, Additional Commissioner of Public Instruction Nalin Atul, Kalaburagi Municipal Corporation Commissioner Lokhande Snehal Sudhakar, and other officers visited the Saradagi Barrage and some of the flood-hit villages.
As per the information provided by the administration, the authorities were releasing 3,761 cusecs water from Amarja, 14,400 cusecs from Bennethora, 3,020 cusecs from Lower Mullamari, and 11,333 cusecs from Karanja (in Bidar district) on Friday morning.
People shifted
As many as 12,114 people from 32 villages along the banks of the Bhima have been shifted to safer places. The district administration has identified 157 flood-prone villages in Afzalpur, Jewargi, Kalaburagi, Chittapur, and Shahbad taluks and cautioned the people.
The administration has also opened 117 relief centres and 17,776 people have taken shelter. It has identified 55 government hostels for shifting.
Ms. Jyothsna had appointed a Nodal Officer for each taluk to coordinate among the different government functionaries on the flood-related matters.
On Friday, three NDRF teams were working. As many as 101 swimmers from Home Guards, diving experts, boat operators and flood rescuing trainers were deployed. According to the administration estimate, around 10,000 houses were flooded in the district.
The administration clarified that no loss of human life has been reported.
Extra forces
Additional boats from Bagalkot, Ballari, Udupi, and Uttara Kannada districts, NDRF teams from Chitradurga and Dakshina Kannada districts, and Fire and Emergency Services Personnel from Bidar district have been summoned.
