E-Paper
Army choppers airdrop food, water in flood-affected villages of Jalandhar district
Jalandhar’s deputy commissioner Varinder Kumar Sharma said six helicopters of the Indian Army were pressed into service for providing relief to the stranded people in these villages under Shahkot sub-division.
Authorities on Wednesday started airdropping food, water and packets of dry ration in 18 flood-affected villages of Punjab’s Jalandhar district even as hundreds of families were trapped in their houses.
Jalandhar’s deputy commissioner Varinder Kumar Sharma said six helicopters of the Indian Army were pressed into service for providing relief to the stranded people in these villages under Shahkot sub-division.
Sharma had constituted a team under the chief executive officer of Smart City, Jitendra Jorwal and Jalandhar’s sub-divisional magistrate Paramveer Singh for preparation of the food items and packets of dry ration. These packets were then transported to Jalandhar Cantt early on Wednesday morning where it was loaded into the six army helicopters.
Deputy commissioner Sharma said airdropping of food packets would continue in the marooned villages with the help of Indian Army till the situation normalises.
At least 80 villages in Shahkot and Sultanpur Lodhi sub-divisions of Jalandhar and Kapurthala districts were flooded on Tuesday after the Sutlej River breached its banks at four more places. Crops on more than 45,000 acres of land, including 30,000 acres in Shahkot, were submerged in the floodwater.
Lohian Khas in the Shahkot sub-division is the worst-hit as 50 of these villages fall in the area. On Monday, the river breached embankments at five places in Shahkot and Phillaur areas of Jalandhar district. Of a total of nine breaches in the two neighbouring districts in two days, eight took in Jalandhar.
In Shahkot’s Mandiala village, a major breach that occurred early on Tuesday morning could not be plugged and soon 30 villages in the area were flooded.
The district administration officials in Jalandhar said the water level has increased in the Gidder Pindi village and several schools have been also flooded. The roads to the village were also cut off.
The district administration of Jalandhar and Kapurthala have also started an operation to the plug the five breaches in the Satluj river includes four in Shahkot division and one in Sultanpur Lodhi division.
Kapurthala’s deputy commissioner, DPS Kharbanda, said a rescue operation is underway while food has been sent through the boats to the families trapped.
