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Over 30,000 people stranded in MP floods rescued in 5 days: Official
The floods in Madhya Pradesh have impacted over 55,000 people living in 493 villages. Of them, 31,000 have been rescued and 16,000 shifted to relief camps
BHOPAL: More than 1,100 people were rescued on Thursday from flood-affected villages of Madhya Pradesh, a home department official said.
As many as 25 villages have been submerged fully while 68 were partially underwater due to the release of water from the Kota barrage in the Chambal river on Thursday. The situation is still tense in the Chambal division as the river is still flowing five metres above of danger mark, the official said.
More than 70 teams of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Indian Army and Indian Air Force helicopters are carrying out rescue operations for the past three days.
In the past five days, more than 55,000 people living in 493 villages of Gwalior, Sheopur, Shivpuri, Bhind and Morena have been affected. More than 31,000 people have been rescued and as many as 16,000 shifted to 126 relief camps in Gwalior and Chambal division.
But there are many still living in submerged villages; some of them sent SOS messages on social media. Priyanka Goyal, who said she was a resident of Madwari village of Bhind, posted a video on her Facebook account seeking help for 300 villagers who were stranded. After the video, a rescue team successfully shifted all the villagers to the relief camp.
In another incident, two villagers of Kundarayan village of Gwalior saved the lives of 27 people, who were stuck in the village for the past 36 hours. The villagers, Chhotelal Singh and Guddu Kumar swam 200 metres to inform authorities about those stranded.
Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan who inspected the flood-affected areas and announced clothes and 50 kg ration to every affected family.
“The revenue department is evaluating the loss of property and the agriculture department has been asked to evaluate the loss of crop and animal husbandry department of livestock in every district,” said Chouhan.
The opposition said not enough was being done. Congress MLA Lakhan Singh protested in front of Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Bhitarwar, one of the flood-affected areas in Gwalior.
Chouhan told him this wasn’t the time or place for politics. “Come to the assembly for politics. This is not the right place to do politics,” said Chouhan.
Lakhan Singh did wrap up but not before responding to the barb. “People are facing problems and officers are not doing anything for them. I sat on a protest to support the locals, not to do any politics.”
BJP lawmaker Rameshwar Sharma blamed the Congress for the flood, saying the floods happened in the Chambal region because the Congress government didn’t act on the river interlinking project floated by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.”
Congress MLA Kunal Chaudhary, however, asked why he was absolving his party’s government at the Centre. “For the past six years, BJP is in power so why did they delay the project. BJP leaders have made it a habit to blame the Congress for everything... and now for a natural calamity and mismanagement of state government too.”
