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Reduced rainfall brings some relief in Kolhapur
KOLHAPUR: The flood situation in Kolhapur and Sangli districts in western Maharashtra showed signs of abatement on Saturday as the waters started to recede slowly.
KOLHAPUR: The flood situation in Kolhapur and Sangli districts in western Maharashtra showed signs of abatement on Saturday as the waters started to recede slowly.
Comparatively less rainfall in the last two days coupled with the discharge of water from Almatti dam in Karnataka is expected to ease the floods upstream.
As of Friday, 14 Navy teams were engaged in rescue operations in Kolhapur district and 12 in Sangli. The death toll in the five districts of Kolhapur, Sangli, Satara, Pune and Solapur due to floods stood at 29 till Friday.
Kolhapur district witnessed 2057.97mm rainfall till date this season, while the last 24 hours saw 90.34 mm rainfall, India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
A major stretch of the Mumbai-Bengaluru National Highway continued to be closed on Saturday.
More than 6,000 vehicles, mainly trucks and private buses, were held up at Belagavi on the Karnataka-end and at Satara on the Maharashtra side.
The highway stretch will reopen only when the waters completely recede at Shiroli which is under seven feet of water.
Kolhapur district collector Daulat Desai said on Saturday that a meeting with social activists and NGOs was held on Friday and specified that “collecting funds for flood relief by any NGO is not allowed. Whatever anybody collects has to be in the name of “CM Relief Fund”.
As a result of floods and absence of fresh supply in the city, prices of vegetables have sharply increased in the city. Maya Rathod, a house wife and social activist from Samrat Nagar said she had purchased lady’s finger at Rs 120 a kg and cabbage for Rs. 60. The prices of fruits and vegetables had more than doubled.
While rescue operations have moved towards Shirol and Kurundwad tehsils in Kolhapur, Abhinav Deshmukh, superintendent of police said it might take another two to three days for the water to recede from Kolhapur district completely.
The disaster management cell was flooded with calls and messages for help and officials said that residents were reluctant to shift to safer locations and but did so after being persuaded. In Kolhapur district, more than one lakh people from 227 villages, had been evacuated to safer place, officials said.
