Brace for more rain in Punjab, warns weatherman

Chandigarh The meteorology department on Monday raised an alert for more rainfall in the coming days and said the people can expect respite from Thursday onwards. This was conveyed by the officials of the meteorology department in a meeting with the Punjab chief secretary Anurag Verma, here.

The districts — Ropar, Patiala, Fatehgarh Sahib, Mohali, Ludhiana and Nawanshahr— received heavy to extremely heavy rainfall. In the past 24 hours, the Ropar district received an unprecedented 380 mm of rain, which submerged the paddy crop.

Senior scientist AK Singh informed that the Kandi belt of Punjab particularly is under severe stress due to rainfall. Due to this, the vast areas remained submerged in water. The rainfall which started on Saturday will continue for three more days, he said.

Bhakra levels rise by six feet in a day

Over the past three days, the Bhakra Dam reservoir has witnessed a steep increase in water levels. On Monday, the level increased by seven feet and touched 1,620.43 feet.

According to the officials of the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB), there is no need to panic as the dam still has 45% storage left. The top officials ruled out the opening of floodgates in the near future.

Similarly, the water level in Pong Dam is at 1,350.63 feet with a total filling capacity of up to 1,390 feet. The water level recorded at Ranjit Sagar Dam is 1,706.26 feet, while the capacity is 1731.99 feet.

Agri department assessing loss

The state’s agriculture department is assessing the loss of paddy crop as agricultural fields were submerged in Ropar, Mohali and Fatehgarh Sahib. “We are in the process of assessing the loss. Our staff is finding it difficult to move due to heavy rainfall and rural roads are also submerged,” said director agriculture Gurvinder Singh, adding that in case the crop remained submerged in water for a week it will suffer damage.

Singh said districts Ropar, Mohali, Fatehgarh Sahib, Patiala, Khanna and Ludhiana have suffered maximum submergence. He added that so far 70% of the paddy crop has been transplanted, and due to excess water in the fields, the transplantation had to be suspended temporarily.

All three rivers in spate

All three rivers Sutlej, Ravi and Beas flowing in Punjab, according to the state water resources department, are in spate. The rivers are receiving three times more water than usual in Monsoon, the department officials added.

Sutlej received unprecedented 2.2 lakh cusecs of water on Sunday, while on Monday the flow reduced to 1.81 cusecs, which is three times more than the average during the monsoons. Due to this, the river is flowing full to the brim. According to an official of BBMB generally 45,000 cusecs of water is received in Sutlej during monsoon. Similarly, in Ravi and Beas the inflows are 1.61 lakh cusecs and 2.58 lakh cusecs, respectively, three times more than the normal average during Monsoons. Seasonal river Ghaggar today received unprecedented 1.68 lakh cusecs water.