Heavy rain disrupts daily life in U’khand, Himachal, Assam

PTI :
Heavy rain disrupted daily life in vast swathes of north India, including Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, on Friday while the flood situation in Assam remained grim with major rivers flowing above the danger mark and nearly 24 lakh people affected.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma visited several flood-hit areas in Dibrugarh, one of the 30 affected districts in the state, which is reeling from the worst deluge in recent years. In Uttarakhand, which has received heavy rain over the past few days, a five-year-old drowned in a rainwater-filled pit in Dehradun and a teenager in a Haridwar rivulet.
Daily life was disrupted in the hill state as the rain triggered numerous landslides, blocking key roads, including the national highway leading to Badrinath. Heavy rain also lashed several parts of Himachal Pradesh, leading to the closure of 64 roads. The regional Met office warned of moderate flash flood risk in few areas of Kangra, Kullu, Kinnaur, Mandi, Sirmaur and Shimla districts in the next 24 hours.
In Rajasthan, heavy rain continued to batter the state with Malpura in Tonk district recording 176 mm rainfall in a 24-hour period.
In Assam, 77 wild animals have died — either due to drowning or during treatment — while 94 have been rescued from the flooded Kaziranga National Park as on Friday, an official said.
The flood situation was critical with nearly 24 lakh people affected in 30 districts and all major rivers flowing above the danger mark.
Chief Minister Sarma reviewed the situation in Dibrugarh town, which has been under water and facing severe power shortages for the past eight days. He visited some areas on foot and interacted with the people.
Two persons, including a child, were killed and another was injured in a landslide following incessant rainfall in the Dispur area of Kamrup Metropolitan district, taking the death toll in this year’s floods, landslides and storms to 64. No fresh casualty, however, was reported due to the floods, with the number of people losing lives only due to the deluge remaining at 52.
Dhubri is the worst-hit district with 6.48 lakh people affected, followed by Darrang with 1.90 lakh people and Cachar with 1.45 lakh.
Meanwhile, the Delhi government has set up a 24×7 flood control room to monitor real-time data from the Hathnikund barrage from where water is released in the Yamuna to Delhi.
“Last year, the Yamuna reached its highest level in 70 years. The Delhi government is gearing up to tackle any possibility of floods. The control room is in touch with officials at Hathnikund barrage from where Yamuna river discharge is received. After the release of one lakh cusecs of water, relief and rescue machinery starts working,” said Atishi, the city government’s water minister.