Floods continue to wreak havoc with Gurdaspur district in Punjab being the most affected where several villages have been inundated by Beas river water. Besides, several areas of Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Moga and Rupnagar districts are also reeling under flood water. The Indian Army has once again helping in evacuating people, while the local administration is also carrying out relief and rescue operations on a war footing.
Army jawans have been deployed in Sri Anandpur Sahib and Nangal areas of Rupnagar district to evacuate people trapped in the flood water. Similarly, the Harsabela village of this district is also badly affected and the army is helping there. In the Bholath area of Kapurthala district, the army rescued 158 people from flood water till evening, while in many other areas including Purana Shala in Gurdaspur, army jawans were busy in rescue operations.
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said that torrential rains had wreaked havoc in the State by causing widespread damages to government and private properties worth around 10,000 crore rupees in the State besides loss of human lives. He added that the State Government had been working round the clock to restore the blocked roads besides providing all possible assistance to the affected families.
Chief Minister, Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu presided over a high-level meeting in Shimla and directed the concerned departments to take appropriate steps to increase the number of Automatic Weather Stations and stressed for setting up a weather observatory centre in the state to obtain real time data related to weather forecast, which would further help in taking precautionary measures, well within time. He added that effective steps should be taken to fortify the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and it should be provided updated equipments and technology to deal with during emergent situations.
Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu also said that the State Government has decided to relax the provisions of ‘Vidhayak Ksetra Vikas Nidhi Yojana’ (VKVNY) during the financial year 2023-24 by including protection works of retaining walls/breast walls and channelization of Nullahs under it. This decision was taken in view of heavy losses caused to human lives besides public and private properties during recent heavy rains in the State. As per reports from the State Disaster Management Authority, during this monsoon season incidents related to heavy rainfall, landslides, and floods have resulted in a total of 330 fatalities and 322 injuries, with 38 people still missing.
