Punjab flood situation worsens, Ravi inundates border districts

The flood situation in Punjab worsened today with gushing waters from the Ravi breaching its embankments and advancing several kilometres inland in Gurdaspur and Amritsar districts, inundating villages and huge tracts of agricultural land.

Three floodgates of the 150-year-old Madhopur headworks were washed away as 2.12 lakh cusecs of water reached there after heavy rain in the Ravi’s catchment area in Jammu.

The authorities had requisitioned 90 people from all over the state to open some of the 54 floodgates here late last evening. These were stuck because of massive silt deposition. While they continued work, the several-foot-high silt deposits made it impossible for them to open the floodgates. As the water level continued to rise and three of those working on the gates fell in the gushing waters, the operation was called off and 60 personnel working on the job were airlifted by the Army. While two of those who fell were rescued, a chargeman is reportedly missing.

With the Ravi water level having risen to 4.60 lakh cusecs late last evening because of continuous and heavy rain in Jammu and Kashmir, the Punjab Government, with help from the Army, the National Disaster Response Force and civilian volunteers, hit the ground running in the wee hours of today for rescue and relief operations. As the river water made way inland, at Daburi in Gurdaspur, 400 students and 40 staff members of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya were stuck in the school building, which was inundated. They were finally rescued after a day-long operation and brought to safer places.

Seeing the gravity of the situation, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, who was touring Gurdaspur, decided to leave his helicopter there for the use of rescue operations and came back by road, assuring people that the government was doing all it could to help the flood-affected people. While he made a committee of ministers, assigning them to all flood-hit areas in the state, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party has cancelled all its ongoing programmes, with party cadres being assigned the job of helping in the rescue operations and providing relief kits to affected families.

In the Ajnala and Ramdass areas of Amritsar district, the breach on a dhussi bundh led to the river water entering 20 villages. Amritsar DC Sakshi Sawhney and local MLA Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal remained at the forefront of the operations to move people to safer places.

With the other two rivers — the Beas and the Sutlej — also in spate because of heavy rain in the catchment areas in upper reaches of Himachal Pradesh, the reservoirs of all three dams were full to the brim, requiring the authorities to make controlled release of water. The water level in Pong remained over the danger mark, necessitating 94,845 cusecs of water to be released. Similarly, in the Ranjit Sagar Dam, while 2.15 lakh cusecs of water was released in the morning, the release was brought down to 52,493 cusecs by the evening. From Bhakra, 43,800 cusecs of controlled release was made.

As a result, the water flew towards the Doaba and lower Malwa plains in Punjab, causing flooding in Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Tarn Taran, Ferozepur and Fazilka. Though the state did not receive much rainfall, the past three days of downpour has led to stagnant water in fields in many villages of Sangrur and Barnala.

According to data procured from the state Agriculture Department, standing crops on 2.30 lakh acres are now submerged under water. The BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) has demanded compensation from the state government for farmers whose crops have been damaged. In Sultanpur Lodhi, environmentalist and Rajya Sabha member Balbir Singh Seechewal oversaw the relief and rescue operations, going in boats to houses cut off because of stagnant water that had overflown from the Beas. At Dhilwan, 2 lakh cusecs of water was recorded this evening. As the water flowed down in Malwa, it rose to 2.60 lakh cusecs at Harike and 2.58 lakh cusecs at Hussainiwala. A bridge reportedly collapsed at Jhamke village in Ferozepur. In Fazilka, residents of many villages were asked by the authorities to move to safer places.

Meanwhile, Punjab Water Resources Minister Barinder Kumar Goyal today said state-wide flood control rooms were working 24x7 for public assistance. He urged the people to contact these numbers in case of any emergency.