Monsoon fury: Six major breaches not yet plugged in Kaithal district

Parveen Arora

Karnal, July 18

The water level has started going down in the Ghaggar and Hansi Butana canal in Kaithal district, but six major breaches — three in a Ghaggar bundh and three in Hansi Butana — are yet to be plugged. Poor connectivity of roads due to waterlogging and washing away of stretches are a major challenge for the administration to plug these as machines are not able to reach the breach sites.

NDRF rescues 48 persons

• NDRF sub-inspector Navdeep Yadav said they had rescued 48 persons who were stuck in the dhanis located in the flood areas of Sirsa district
• Sirsa DC Parth Gupta and SP Uday Singh Meena have been continuously visiting the sensitive areas in villages along the Ghaggar. The DC said they were supplying potable water in tankers in flood-affected villages and were also sending first aid kits

The water level of the Ghaggar was 22.2 feet at 2.30pm on Tuesday, a notch below the danger level. It was 29 feet with a flow of 82,400 cusecs of water on July 12, which caused three major breaches at Bhatia, Khushal Majra and Urlana villages, resulting in flash floods in several villages of the Cheeka block, said an official.

Apart from it, leakage at various places and overflowing of the Ghaggar and the Hansi Butana canal resulted in the flooding of thousands of acres of land and several villages. It has also washed away a major part of the Cheeka-Patiala road, disconnecting various villages from each other. The Hansi-Butana branch was breached at Tatiana village.

Cane, fodder crops damaged

Sugarcane crop in over 35,000 acres and fodder crops in over 14,600 acres have suffered huge damage in both Ambala & Kurukshetra districts

However, the Kaithal administration started plugging work on one breach on the Ghaggar at Khushal Majra village on Tuesday after the connectivity started on the Cheeka-Patiala road. As per sources, still several roads in low-lying areas are waterlogged, disrupting the traffic movement.

“We have started plugging work on a breach at Khushal Majra village. Still several roads are not approachable to breaches, due to which we are not able to start the plugging work. We will plug these as the connectivity gets smooth on roads,” said Parshant Grover, Executive Engineer, Irrigation Department, Kaithal.

Jagdish Sharma, Deputy Commissioner, Kaithal, said they had started plugging work and soon all breaches would be plugged. “We are providing health, water, food packets and other facilities at flood-hit villages. Water supply is being restored in the villages and water samples are being collected by the Public Health Department,” said the DC.

Meanwhile, residents demanded that the government should speed up the plugging work. “There is a need to speed up the work to plug major breaches, which caused massive devastation. We request the government to expedite the work to plug breaches,” said Ram Kumar, a resident of Cheeka block.

Ishwar Singh, Ghula MLA, said he had directed the administration to speed up the plugging work of breaches. The administration has also been directed to make the roads motorable, so that the traffic would ply smoothly and the rescue work would be done easily.