The Orissa government on Sunday started airdropping food packets in marooned villages as a high flood in the Mahanadi and other rivers wreaked havoc affecting 14 lakh people in 19 districts.
As many as 16 persons lost their lives. Besides, there were reports of six persons being swept away by floodwaters in Nayagarh and Bargarh districts, but their bodies have not been recovered.
Swirling floodwaters caused cracks and then breached river embankments at 36 different places, cutting off thousands of villages in Puri, Kendrapara, Nayagarh, Cuttack and Jagatsinghpur districts.
Nearly one lakh people have been evacuated from low lying areas to safer places and provided with emergent food assistance. Airdropping of food packets began on Sunday afternoon. Three sorties were made to the most affected areas of Gop, Delanga and Kanas areas of Puri and Kujang of Jagatsinghpur district.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, along with Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Surya Narayan Patro, Chief Secretary Bijay Patnaik and Special Relief Commissioner P.K. Mohapatra, made an aerial survey of the flood-affected areas in Puri, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapada districts.
Mr. Patnaik directed district administrations to mobilise adequate food and medicine for people in the flood affected areas.
Inflow into the Hirakud reservoir on Sunday came down to 6.24 lakh cusec, enabling the dam authorities to close 18 of the 59 gates, which were opened earlier. The discharge from the reservoir through 41 gates was 7.06 lakh cusec. The peak flood at Mundali was observed in the morning, with discharge of 1366688 cusec.
“The situation is likely to improve on Monday as water has started receding in many places. Moreover, there has been a decrease in rainfall in the upper catchment areas of Mahanadi,” Mr. Mohapatra.
Dams in Punjab full to the brim
Sarabjit Pandher reports from Chandigarh:
With heavy rainfall in their catchments, the water in all the three dams of Punjab has almost reached the maximum levels.
The Punjab government has ordered a special survey of the damage caused by floods in various parts of the State.
A release quoting an official spokesman said the water level in the Bhakra Dam over the Sutlej on Sunday touched the 1679.84 feet mark, against its capacity of 1680 feet.
The level on this day last year was 1680.14 feet. The inflow into the Bhakra Dam on Sunday was recorded at 43278 cusecs, while the release was 32381 cusecs. The release on the same date last year was 44784 cusecs.
According to data released by the Irrigation Department, the water level in the Pong Dam over the Beas touched 1387.85 feet against a capacity of 1390 feet. While the inflow was recorded at 26976 cusecs, about 11804 cusecs was released.
Similarly the level in the Ranjit Sagar Dam climbed to 524.40 metres against a capacity of 527.91 metres.
Meanwhile, the State government on Sunday ordered “special girdawari” (survey) to assess crop loss and damage to houses, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Darbara Singh Guru said after visiting the flood-affected villages of the border areas.
Speedy compensation
He said instructions had been issued to all districts to prepare reports at the earliest for speedy compensation to the affected farmers and general public.
Mr. Guru said the recent floods damaged crops on 2.56 lakh acres in 886 villages of Fazilka, Muktsar, Ferozepur, Taran Taran, Jalandhar, SBS Nagar and Kapurthala districts. He said special arrangements for tents, medicines, ration and fodder were being made and adequate funds had been released for relief measures.
