Boats out on Patna roads; alert in 5 dists; unexpected rain hits life in State

Bihar is facing a deluge like situation with nearly twenty four people losing their lives after buildings collapsed and trees fell on them due to incessant Rain across the State. Boats are now ferrying people in Patna and people are faced with harrowing time to meet their daily demands.

The three districts — Patna, Bhagalpur and Kaimur districts — are among over a dozen in the State that were lashed by incessant rain for close to 48 hours bringing normal business to a grinding halt and disrupting rail and road traffic in most places.

According to the weather department, the State Capital has received more than 200 mm rainfall since Friday evening. Principal Secretary, Disaster Management department, Pratyay Amrit, described this as “totally unexpected”.  All schools and college in Patna have been shut and alert issued in five districts.

Several State-run hospitals and private nursing homes are submerged. Patients are stranded in flooded hospital rooms and nursing facilities have been badly hit. The State Government has pressed in  32 boats in Patna to evacuate stranded people.

The weather department said it could be the longest delayed withdrawal of monsoon as rains continued to lash several States, including Bihar.

IMD Director General Mritunjay Mohapatra on Sunday said the four-month monsoon season which is officially ending on Monday is unlikely to withdraw even till the weekend. The IMD said active monsoon still prevails over parts of Rajasthan, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

In badly hit Bihar, a bird’s eye view of Patna made the city appear like a huge lake dotted with concrete structures. Posh low-lying areas like Rajendra Nagar and Pataliputra Colony are flooded due to the continuous spell of rain. Private hospitals, medical stores and other shops were submerged in waist-deep water, bringing life to a standstill.

While people waded through the waterlogged streets, boats of Nation Disaster Response Force (NDRF) were also out in some areas of the city to rescue the residents.

Amrit expressed concern over water having entered many power sub-stations .

The East Central Railway, headquartered in Hajipur, said close to 30 trains have been cancelled and many others short-terminated or diverted on account of the flooding of Patna and Danapur junctions and many other smaller stations. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, emerging from a video conference with district magistrates, told reporters, “We are making all possible efforts.

I would appeal to the people of the State to have patience and courage.”

“In the event of water entering a sub-station, power has to be disconnected to avoid major casualties. Sump houses then become dependent on diesel. But the availability of fuel is finite and if heavy rainfall persists, pumping out water from inundated streets could be hampered drastically,” Amrit said.

Three people died in Bhagalpur when the boundary wall of a temple collapsed in Barari police station area while as many people were buried alive when a house caved in at Khanjarpur area, District Magistrate, Pranav Kumar said.

In Danapur, on the outskirts of Patna, a one-year-old girl and three women died when a tree fell on an auto rickshaw carrying them. Three deaths also were reported from Bhabhua, the district headquarters of Kaimur, where continuous rain led to the collapse of two mud houses.

In Nawada, efforts were on to trace three locals who were reportedly swept away in the water current. Meanwhile, President Ram Nath Kovind’s scheduled programme on Sunday at Jharkhand’s Gumla district has been cancelled.

Though the reason for the cancellation was not mentioned in the statement, sources said the decision was taken owing to heavy rain across the region. Train services on the Ballia-Chhapra section of the North Eastern Railway (NER) was disrupted due to heavy rains on Sunday.

Public Relations Officer, NER, Mahesh Gupta said seven trains on this section has been cancelled, while six trains have been diverted.

Monday, 30 September 2019 | PNS | New Delhi

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