Maharashtra floods toll 209; 8 still missing

The death toll in the flood-ravaged districts of Konkan and western Maharashtra on Tuesday rose to 209 after addition of 17 more deaths, officials said

The death toll in the flood-ravaged districts of Konkan and western Maharashtra on Tuesday rose to 209 after addition of 17 more deaths, officials said. Eight people are still missing. The state is expected to announce a relief package for flood-affected people after the cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

India's National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), shows NDRF personnel rescuing stranded villagers from flooded areas following heavy monsoon rains in Balinge village of Kolhapur district of Maharashtra. (AFP)

According to preliminary estimates, losses to public and private properties are over ₹4,000 crore. Losses due to flooding in Kolhapur and Sangli are ₹700 crore. Electricity infrastructure worth ₹1,200 crore has been damaged, while damage to roads and bridges is over ₹1,500 crore. Crops across 338,000 hectares have been damaged in western Maharashtra and Konkan. The state relief is expected to cover all affected elements by widening the scope of the set norms. “The traders who have suffered losses may be given waiver in GST and electricity bills, besides helping them in getting the losses recovered from insurance coverage. The traders may also be given loans from district cooperative banks at low interest rates,” an official said.

CM Uddhav Thackeray held a meeting with deputy CM Ajit Pawar, relief and rehabilitation minister Vijay Wadettiwar, agriculture minister Dadaji Bhuse on Friday. He had held a review meeting with senior officials on Monday. “The broader outline of the package has been finalised. The relief for losses of crops, domestic structures and belongings will be compensated at a higher rate than the set norms of the National Disaster Response Fund”, said an official from the relief and rehabilitation department.

“The state had given additional compensation by keeping the norms aside during the Nisarga and Tauktae cyclones in the past two years. Apart from it, the state is also expected to grant a relief package to traders and labourers who have sustained losses due to the flooding,”added the official from the relief and rehabilitation department.

The district administrations have been directed to identify land for the rehabilitation of the villages that were devastated because of the landslide. At least 11 landslides were reported in Raigad, Ratnagiri and Satara, claiming several lives. “Funds would not be the problem for the rehabilitation of these villages as we have decided to utilise CSR funds of the corporate houses, along with the central funding. The identification of the land for the relocation of these villages would be a challenging job as many parameters need to be complied with, to ensure that the villages do not meet with a similar fate in future,” an official from the CMO said.

Among the 209 deaths, the highest (95) are from Raigad, which has witnessed three landslides, followed by 45 in Satara and 35 in Ratnagiri. Three people are still missing in Satara, while one each is missing in Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Kolhapur, Pune and Thane.

434,181 people from eight-affected districts have been shifted to safer places. Among them 211,808 are from Sangli , 162,564 are from Kolhapur, 49,149 from Satara and remaining from other districts. 251,304 of them have been put up at the shelters erected by the government and NGOs, while remaining have been staying at their relatives’ homes.

Minister of state and Raigad’s guardian minister Aditi Tatkare has said that she had requested the government to consider compensation to the next of kin of the people who have gone missing. “I am requesting the government to give ex gratia to the next of kin of the people who are not traceable and unlikely to be traced now,” she said.

NDRF has called of the search and rescue operation from all the landslide sites and has also withdrawn a few more companies on Tuesday. After withdrawing 12 of the total 34 companies on Monday, six more companies were withdrawn on Tuesday. 16 NDRF teams are still deployed with highest, six , being in Kolhapur and 4 in Sangli. Though water level in most of the rivers in western Maharashtra has receded, Panchaganga river in Kolhapur is still flowing at 45 feet against its danger level of 43 feet.

Districts in Konkan are on orange alert for Thursday and in the wake of the alert, the NDRF teams are expected to be stay put for a few more days as a precautionary measure. “In the wake of the orange alert for the Konkan on Thursday, teams of NDRF will be kept stationed in the affected districts. Similarly, the people who have been evacuated to safer places will not be allowed to go back to their respective homes for few days. In some districts like Ratnagiri, the evacuated people who have suffered no losses to their houses have started going back,” said an official from Mantralaya.

Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar announced to constitute a committee under retired bureaucrat Eknath Patil to study the measures that need to be taken for the smooth flow of river water. “The committee will recommend the measures including widening and deepening of the river to reduce the intensity of the flooding. We have also decided to remove the encroachments in the riverbeds. The illegal constructions will be immediately removed and the action will be taken against the officials responsible for them,” he said during a press conference in Kolhapur on Tuesday. He visited flood-ravaged Satara, Kolhapur and Sangli over the past two days.

Pawar said that the state government will also speak to union transport minister Nitin Gadkari requesting him to construct bridges on NH4 above level of the flooding in 2005, 2019 and 2021 to ensure the smooth vehicular traffic. The highway was opened for traffic on Tuesday after keeping it shut for four days. Pawar said that the district administrations have been told to complete the assessment of the losses due to the floods at the earliest.