Water level down in Yamuna

Situation in Haryana's flood-hit Yamunanagar district improved as water levels in the Western Yamuna Canal reduced by over 67,000 cusecs today, senior officials said in Chandigarh.

Situation in Haryana's flood-hit Yamunanagar district improved as water levels in the Western Yamuna Canal reduced by over 67,000 cusecs today, senior officials said in Chandigarh.

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The water level, which had risen to 90,000 cusecs on Saturday, was down to 23,000 cusecs today.

"There is no cause for panic. The water discharge is down today considerably after we opened both the western and eastern ends of the canal," Yamunanagar Deputy Commissioner, Ashok Sangwan said.

There had been no heavy rainfall in the district since noon yesterday though there have been some intermittent showers and the situation was improving.

He, however, said that agricultural land in nearly 20 villages was submerged under water while administration was providing relief to those affected by the floods earlier.

Asked if any alert had been sounded in the district, he said, "we continue to keep a watch on the situation and review it at short intervals of time. We would like to assure that as of now there is no cause for panic".

"The vehicular traffic on NH-73 which connects Yamunanagar to Poanta Sahib in Himachal Pradesh is also plying normally. We have never closed this highway at any point of time, though we had restricted the flow of heavy traffic on this route as a precaution. Light traffic has always been plying on this highway," he said dismissing reports that this highway had been closed to traffic earlier.

He said that the district had reported seven flood-related deaths recently. With this the total toll due to recent floods in various parts of Haryana including Ambala, Kurukshetra, Sirsa and Fatehabad has risen to 33.

Meanwhile, Chandigarh was lashed by heavy rains (42.8 mm). Ambala, Gurgaon, Karnal, Rohtak, Sonepat and Panchkula were also lashed by rains.