Chandigarh: With the torrential rains throwing life out of gear in many parts of Punjab and Haryana for the second day in a row, Punjab government sounded high alert and called out NDRF in the wake of the flood threat looming in the areas along the overflowing Satluj and Ghaggar rivers on Sunday.
According to reports reaching here, Satluj river was overflowing thus inundating many low-laying areas and villages along the river and its tributaries including Kahanpur Khoohi in Ropar district and its Anandpur Sahib city.
High Alert in Punjab
The state government was on high alert in the wake of incessant rains and the subsequent waterlogging in many areas of Patiala, Sangrur, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran, Ludhiana, Mansa and Muktsar districts.
According to information, even though no untoward incident was reported from any part of the state till the time of filing this report, many low-laying areas in the cities named above were said to have been inundated and a few breaches in the water channels were reported in Ferozepur district.
Meanwhile, Ghaggar river – which originates from Panchkula district of Haryana and passes through Samana, Devinagar, Ghanaur and Sanuar towns of Patiala and parts of Sangrur district, was also reported to be overflowing following which the state government had issued preventive evacuation orders and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) had been called out in Tiwana village in Mohali. Teams of NDRF also rescued several people in the Derabassi area of Mohali.
While the overflowing rivers’ waters had waterlogged a large number of fields, several houses and the fencing of the international border were reported to have been damaged by the heavy rains in Kharar and Ferozepur areas, respectively.
Meanwhile, Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann asked all his ministers, legislators and officers to stay in their respective areas to ensure timely help to the needy.
Haryana's Gurugram badly hit
Meanwhile, Gurugram was said to be the worst hit due to heavy downpour which caused massive waterlogging in many parts of the city following which the Gurugram administration asked all the schools to announce a holiday on Monday and advised corporate houses to work from home.
Elsewhere in the state, Yamuna river was said to be overflowing above its 70,000 cusec water danger mark. The three other rivers, namely, Markanda, Ghaggar and Tangri were said to be flowing close to danger mark and the administration asked people living close to their banks to shift to safer places.
Meanwhile, about 10 trains were said to have been cancelled and 12 others rescheduled in the Ambala railway division due to heavy rains. However, all the operations of the heritage Kalka-Shimla line had been completely shut.
Meanwhile, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar visited Kaushalya Dam barrage in Panchkula to assess the water level in the reservoir. Interacting with newspersons he said that since the water level in Kaushalya Dam had risen significantly due to heavy rains, the water was being released as required.
