Heavy rain batters Andhra, R’sthan

Jaipur/Trivandrum, Aug 17 

Andhra Pradesh today received heavy showers, with a swollen Krishna river leaving 87 villages and hundreds of acres of farm land under a sheet of water in two districts. NDRF personnel retrieved the body of a girl who drowned in Krishna district, taking the death toll to two in the state. Normalcy seemed to be slowly returning to flood-ravaged Kerala, where so far 113 persons have lost their lives, while in Rajasthan, several rivers and dams were overflowing due to incessant rainfall.

According to the MeT department, Gegal in Ajmer recorded 15 cm rainfall followed by Mount Abu 14 cm, Kishangarh and Pushkar 13 cm, and Taragarh 11 cm during the last 24 hours ending on Saturday morning. The Chambal river is flowing at 140.50 metres, 12 metres above the danger mark in Dholpur, officials said. A district administration official said nearly 12 roads are disconnected due to heavy rains and 40 villages are facing a flood-like situation.

In Tonk, Bisalpur dam is almost filled and it’s gates can be opened at anytime. The sub-divisional magistrate of Deoli in Tonk has issued an advisory saying the decision to open gates may be taken anytime.

He also asked the block level officials to ensure that people from low-lying areas and villages are shifted if required. People have started moving to their homes from relief camps in Kerala, even as the toll climbed to 113, with authorities retrieving more bodies from landslide-hit Malappuram and Wayanad districts.

Fifty people have so far lost their lives in Malappuram and 12 in Wayanad, the two northern districts, where 28 people are still missing.

Search operations are continuing at Kavalappara in Malappuram and Puthumala in Wayanad, the two areas which were the worst hit in the second spell of south west monsoon rains since August 8, where massive landslides had wiped out two villages.

Kolkata, which is being battered by torrential rains, received 186.1 mm rainfall during the last 24 hours till Saturday noon. Vehicular traffic was disrupted in several areas of central, south and north Kolkata, resulting in traffic snarls. Flight operations were also affected, as take-off and landing was delayed, said a senior official of the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport. — PTI  

Naidu told to vacate house on river bank

In Andhra Pradesh, the Tadepalli mandal tehslidar has served a notice on Leader of Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu asking him to vacate the rented bungalow on the Krishna river bank at Undavalli in view of the heavy flood. Naidu was away in Hyderabad and, as such, the notice was handed over to the security personnel at the bungalow