Heavy monsoon showers triggered floods and landslides in parts of the Northeast, where at least seven people died Friday and over four lakh in Assam were affected by a raging Brahmaputra, while rain-related incidents claimed 14 lives in Uttar Pradesh in past nine days.
However, thenational capital’s wait for the rain continued as it witnessed a hot and humidday with the maximum temperature settling at 38.3 degrees Celsius, threenotches above normal. Some relief is likely on July 15-16 as rains are expectedin the city.
In Uttar Pradesh, rains lashed eastern and western parts ofthe state as the water level in several rivers neared the danger mark.”Fourteen persons have died between July 3 and July 11 in rain relatedincidents including house collapse, lightning, wall collapse,” a UP Relief Commissioner office report said.
While three persons died in Fatehpur in this period, oneeach was killed in Mahoba, Pilibhit, Kanpur Dehat, Sonbhadra, Hardoi,Kushinagar, Pratapgarh, Sitapur, Kannauj, Barabanki and Jaunpur, it said.
According to the Central Water Commission (CWC) report onThursday, river Ganga is rising in Kanpur, Chhatnag in Prayagraj, Mirzapur,Varanasi, Ghazipur and Ballia, while river Ramganga is rising in Kalagarh(Bijnore) and Bareilly.
Yamuna is rising in Kalpi (Jalaun) and Naini (Prayagraj).Gomti river is rising in Sitapur and Sultanpur, it said. River Sharda isflowing above the danger mark in Palliakalan (Lakhimpur) and rising in ShardaNagar.
Rains lashed large parts of Punjab and Haryana also,bringing down the maximum temperatures below normal limits in most places.Chandigarh received a heavy downpour in the morning for a second consecutiveday.
In the Northeast, while three people died in Assam, two eachlost their lives in Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram in rain-related incidents.
The flood situation in Assam remained grim with more thanhalf of the state’s 33 districts battling the raging waters of the Brahmaputraand its tributaries. The floods have led to death of three persons and affected4.23 lakh people.
The swirling flood waters have forced the railway authorityto control train services due to “settlement of tracks” in theLumding-Badarpur hill section.
Barpeta is the worst-hit district with over 85,000 peopleaffected.The ASDMA said nearly 800 villages in 41 revenuecircles are under water and about 2,000 marooned people have been put up in 53relief camps and relief distribution centres.