Rain havoc: Death toll mounts to 15 in Punjab, Haryana

Chandigarh: Rain in Haryana and Punjab abated after three days of onslaught even as several parts still remained flooded and the death toll due to rain-related incident mounted to 15.

Six more people were reported dead on Tuesday due to rain-related incidents, with the overall death toll in the last three days rising to 15. Eight deaths were reported from Punjab, while seven people lost their lives in Haryana.

The days-long rain has left behind a trail of destruction in its wake with properties worth crores obliterated and farmlands flooded.

In Punjab, more than 9,000 people were evacuated in Patiala, Rupnagar, Moga, Ludhiana, Mohali, SBS Nagar and Fatehgarh Sahib districts, officials said on Tuesday.

The weather remained clear at most places on Tuesday in the region, bringing much succour to the people who were busy salvaging whatever was left from the wreckage.

The incessant downpour inundated homes and caused extensive damage to crops and vegetables in many districts.

Ambala, Patiala, and Rupnagar, the worst-hit of the lot, remained water-logged.

Government officials said relief shelters have been set up in several districts, including Rupnagar, Patiala, Mohali, Ambala, and Panchkula in the two states.

The eight from Punjab were reported from Fatehgarh Sahib, Rupnagar, Hoshiarpur, SBS Nagar, and Mohali districts.

Among them was a 17-year-old boy from Bihar who died in Fatehgarh Sahib district.

Another man, a resident of Mandi (HP) died in a rain-related incident in Rupnagar district.

One of those reported dead on Tuesday was a 75-year-old man, who died after the roof of his mud house in Badowal village caved in during heavy rain on Saturday night, said an official.

A 19-year-old engineering student who had drowned in Rajpura on Sunday was another casualty that came to light on Tuesday.

Harish, who hailed from Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh, had been enrolled in a BTech computer sciences course at a private university for the past two years.

According to police, Harish drowned in his university premises which was flooded with water.

In another incident in Punjab, a youth was feared drowned Monday in Chitti rivulet, a tributary of the Sutlej River, near Shahkot, while preventing his motorcycle from getting washed away.

Another 16-year-old was feared drowned on Tuesday in the Budha Dariya near Machiwara – 35 km from Ludhiana, police said.

The Chief ministers of the two states are closely monitoring the situation, officials said.

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar Tuesday directed administrative secretaries in charge of flood-affected districts to rush to the areas assigned to them and oversee the relief work.

Punjab Chief Secretary Anurag Verma held a high-level meeting on Tuesday to review the rain damage and orchestrate relief work in the affected areas.

The meeting was attended by, among others, Special Chief Secretary to the Chief Minister A Venu Prasad, DGP Gaurav Yadav, and several representatives of the Army and NDRF.

Verma said protecting people's lives was the top priority of the Punjab government.

Punjab has constituted Rapid Response Teams and appointed nodal officers to supervise ongoing flood relief operations. Permanent medical camps have been established at areas highly affected by floods.

The Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd chairman in the meeting assured the government that the power supply in the affected areas will be immediately restored, an official statement said.

Officials of the Water Resources Department said the water level in Bhakra Dam was 1624.14 feet, while its capacity is 1,680 feet.

The water level in Pong Dam was 1,360.04 feet, against its capacity of 1,390 feet, while the water level in Ranjit Sagar Dam was 1712.64 feet, against its capacity of 1731.99 feet, the statement said.

The meeting chaired by Punjab Chief Secretary, meanwhile, was informed that the two breaches found in Dhusi Bund on the Sutlej River had been plugged, it said.

Five NDRF teams have been deployed in Rupnagar district, three in SAS Nagar (Mohali district), two in Patiala and one each in Jalandhar, Fatehgarh Sahib, and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar to lead rescue operations, the statement said.

Since the level of the Yamuna River at Haryana's Hathini Kund Barrage was rising constantly, people in adjacent low-lying areas have been asked to stay away from the riverbank, the officials said.

At 9 am Tuesday, around 3.21 lakh cusecs of water was discharged from the barrage, the highest quantity this year from the place, officials said.

Several villages in Yamunanagar, Karnal, Panipat, and Sonepat districts, and those adjoining the Yamuna River have been put on alert.

People in the two states extended a helping to each other rescuing the stranded and bringing them food, water bottles, and medicines.

"It is our duty as citizens to do our bit in this crisis," said Deepak Madan from Ambala city as he distributed food packets and clothes in the Manmohan Nagar colony.

In the Rupnagar district of Punjab, among the worst-hit, several people joined hands with the administration to help others.

"It is the indomitable spirit of Punjabis to rise to the occasion whenever they are faced with a crisis," said Parminder Singh, who was reaching out to affected people in the district.

According to officials, Punjab Minister Laljit Singh Bhullar has been stationed in Patti constituency for the last two days to oversee the relief work.

On Tuesday, when flood water entered a Gurdwara in Gudaike village of Tarn Taran, Bhullar reached there and carried Sri Guru Granth Sahib on his head and brought the 'Shabad Guru' to safety.

Haryana's Home Minister Anil Vij on Tuesday visited some of the affected residential colonies close to the Tangri River in Ambala Cantonment. He directed the local administration to make every possible arrangement for the people in flood-affected areas.

The Haryana government said it had on Monday shifted 730 girl students of Chaman Vatika, a residential school in Ambala City, to another facility in Kurukshetra after floodwater entered their hostel complex following a beach in the Ghaggar river.

Power and water supplies broke down in some of the worst-affected areas of Punjab and Haryana as authorities struggled to bring back things to normalcy.

Traffic movement on some of the key highways was gravely impacted with officials saying water had come onto roads through agricultural fields.

After being temporarily closed on Monday, on Tuesday afternoon, the traffic for heavy vehicles and SUVs was restored on Chandigarh-Ambala NH via Derabassi, the Ambala Police said.

It advised light vehicles to use the Ambala-Baldev Nagar underpass and take the Panjokhra Sahib-Barwala-Panchkula.

All sorts of vehicular movement disrupted earlier on the NH-44 GT Road through Ambala was started on Tuesday.

However, the Ambala-Kaithal-Hisar Highway was still closed for vehicular movement due to being waterlogged, they said.

According to officials, Dhussi Bund near Mandala in the Shahkot area breached the danger mark. Water from a swollen Sutlej has flooded two dozen villages in Kapurthala and Jalandhar districts.

Paddy crops sown over more than 20,000 acres of land have been submerged in 3-4 feet of flood water, officials said.

Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on Tuesday visited Punjab's flood-hit areas of Banga, Balachaur, and Anandpur Sahib and demanded the AAP government to announce a relief package for people affected by the deluge.