Kolhapur/Sangli (Maharashtra): At least 26 people have been killed, including 14 in Kolhapur and 12 in Sangli as a rescue boat capsised, as rains continued to wreak massive havoc in these Maharashtra districts, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said here Thursday.
Fadnavis was talking to reporters after an aerial survey of the flood-ravaged areas which also include Satara and Pune district, along with his cabinet colleagues Chandrakanat Patil, Girish Mahajan and Eknath Shinde. He said that ‘the flood situation is very grim, and a national calamity would be declared in the region at the appropriate time’.
While 14 deaths are recorded in Kolhapur due to the rains in the past few days, at least 12 persons drowned when a rescue boat capsised Thursday morning in Brahamnal village of Sangli.
Earlier Konkan Divisional Commissioner Deepak Mhaiskar said nine people were killed when the boat carrying around 30 villagers lost balance and overturned leading to the tragedy. While 15 people were saved, a search is on to trace others still missing in the flood waters.
Devendra Fadnavis informed that warlike rescue efforts have been launched with over 10,000 personnel, from 13 National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams, one of the State Disaster Response Force, a column of Indian Army, 14 Navy teams, a Coast Guard team and the Air Force and local agencies engaged in rescuing people trapped in the flood waters in the two districts.
Fadnavis pointed out that the said rescue work is being hampered as the flood waters are not receding in most areas. He informed that he had spoke with Karnataka Chief Minister B. S. Yediyurappa for the third time this week and the latter has agreed to release 500,000 cusecs water from the Almatty Dam which will bring relief to waterlogging in Sangli.
So far, over 1.35 lakh people have been rescued and shifted to safer locations in the affected regions and thousands more still continued to remain marooned without food, drinking water, medicines, electricity, and other essentials.
Fadnavis said efforts are on to clear the Pune-Bangalore highway to enable quicker movement of relief supplies and manpower to the regions.
IANS